so this is pre coal Kidman my hedgehog
who I've had for about five years
unfortunately for her she'd been hit by
a car and as a consequence had a injury
to her head they're taken an eye out and
she's also lost a leg but nevertheless
she is a fit and healthy hedge on
Britain's best-loved mammal is facing a
huge crisis its population at an
all-time low how often do people now see
a dead hedgehog on the road not very
often but it's not that long ago that
hedgehogs were actually used in road
safety adverts for children you know
they used to be seen everywhere it's
don't get squashed like a hedgehog
[Music]
getting hurt hedgehogs are disappearing
at an astonishing rate in 1950 it's
estimated there were 36 million in the
UK but that number had plummeted to just
1.5 million by the mid-90s and the
freefall has continued there's now only
thought to be 500 thousand left that's a
staggering drop of almost 99% a new
report out today may explain why data
suggests at least a hundred thousand
hedgehogs are killed every year on
Britain's roads this map illuminates
each Hedgehog fatality the brighter the
area the more deaths and that location
revealing deadly rings around cities and
towns you have busy roads in suburban
areas that going out of town are the
areas where we have the most hedgehog
world kills and it's only going to get
worse because traffic is predicted to
increase by about 50% by 2050
mapping the roadkill has shown that the
deaths are concentrated on just the
tenth of all roads here is a prime
example where we've got a busy road
surrounded by some lovely Hedgehog
habitat we've got some nice hedgerows
back gardens and so on and hedgehogs are
coming out and going basically straight
under the wheels of a passing car what
can we do about that well one suggestion
is that we notice how cars often
accelerate when they're coming out of
speed restricted areas and so if we
could simply extend the speed
restriction a little bit maybe by
quarter a mile you see how it goes that
would give our hedgehogs a fighting
chance
this is Lottie Lottie came in two nights
ago she was actually picked up on a very
busy road with steam rolled up in the
gutter you've curled up in her bear here
look
she's quite flat which means he's not
very well Hedgehog hospitals like this
one in Shropshire are often run by
volunteers here they nurse up to 400 a
year this is the hospital where we do
the intensive care where we give all the
medicines we do the injections any first
aid I just lost them it's just the most
beautiful little animals most roads
accidents involving hedgehogs are fatal
unfortunately but you know it's not just
an adult hedgehog that's going to suffer
from being hit on the road it's it's the
babies that are left behind as well and
if they're found that's lucky for them
but if they're not then you've lost not
just one her child but a whole family
the hospital this is part of Ludlow's
plans to become a hedgehog friendly town
residents they're desperately trying to
slow down the decline
we decided we would create our own sign
ask residents put up on their fences or
their walls or their their verge and try
and raise raise awareness for people who
are driving around town I think we're
just coming up here to assign that some
residents have put up for us I suspect a
lot of children now don't see them I
only see pictures of them and it's it's
very sad that so many of the things that
we all took for granted just aren't
aren't around now and if the Hedgehog's
are taken for granted much longer
there's fears it will be too late when
you think about it what right have we
got to make any animal go extinct you
know we tend to think about these things
there's all happening a long way away
there in Africa or there in Borneo but
no actually it's right here in our very
own back gardens under our noses we're
managing to send one of our best love
creatures to extinction