A HEDGEHOG protection group is hoping to enlist the people of Tynedale in its campaign to ensure the survival of Britain’s only spiny mammal.

The nation has lost a third of its hedgehog population in ten years, as their natural habitat is lost to urban sprawl.

But campaign group Hedgehog Street points out that protecting this much-loved creature could be as simple as making a small hole in your fence to allow hedgehogs to go from garden to garden.

And locally, the Northumbrian Hedgehog Rescue Trust has called on people to check gardens carefully for signs of the creature as well as making sure drains are covered and disposing of litter carefully.

Turning a small part of your garden into a wild area would provide a good habitat for a hedgehog, and leaving water and leftover food out at night would turn an urban garden into a hedgehog haven.

Carole Catchpole of Northumbrian Hedgehog Rescue Trust said: “I really do believe the general public can make a massive difference to our hedgehog population.

“Providing food and water is essential, especially in either very dry or excessively wet weather.

“So often we hear there are enough slugs and snails around for them, but if we supplement their natural diet, it really does help enormously.

“We often get emaciated hedgehogs coming in who wouldn’t get like that if they’d been lucky enough to find a kind person who puts out food and water for them every night.”

Hedgehog Street was launched in 2011 and has so far inspired over 36,000 volunteer hedgehog champions nationwide to create neighbourhoods that are safer for hedgehogs.

Volunteers have already helped this prickly species by making gardens into better-equipped foraging areas and have installed 3,929 hedgehog houses as well as removing 4,776 hazards and threats within gardens.

Hedgehog Street is a part of a wider campaign by two UK-based charities – the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).

For more information about how you can protect hedgehogs visit: www.hedgehogstreet.org or www.hedgehogs-northumbria.org.uk.