I would like to draw the attention of Borehamwood & Elstree Times readers to the desperate plight of our native hedgehog.

I would like to ask everyone who has a garden, to please help them in their struggle to survive.

These wonderful gentle creatures are becoming a rare sight nationwide and are in severe decline.

I am privileged to have a small population of hedgehogs visit my garden where I feed and care for them. Many more people are desperately needed to do the same.

Hedgehogs are struggling to find enough natural food and water as their habitat disappears.

They are being prevented from travelling between gardens where they find their insect food, by fences installed right to the ground with no gaps underneath them.

So please check your fences to ensure there are gaps below.

If not, cut small six-inch-square holes at ground level for them to pass through.

Also, a bowl of cat or dog food put out at dusk, along with a bowl of water, will go a long way to helping them.

Along with being run over, many hedgehogs are regularly injured by dogs and garden strimmers or drowned in ponds.

Do not let dogs pick up a hedgehog, many die with infected puncture wounds or worse.

Take care when gardening and check long grass before mowing and strimming.

Also make sure hedgehogs have a way of climbing out of your garden pond if they fall in.

These are small steps to take, but if we all take them together, we can boost our native hedgehog population.

Some people worry about a hedgehog having fleas (they mostly don’t). If they do, they are “host specific” fleas, which means they will not live on you, your cat or dog.

Hedgehogs are our oldest mammals, so please help them.

Patricia Northage
The Campions, Borehamwood