Hedgehogs in SE22 and around?

[Nigello]

Springwatch just had a piece on some 24 connected gardens somewhere in England with small holes in fences/hedges between them to facilitate the movement of hedgehogs. I've never seen one around here. Anyone got one in his/her garden? If so, whereabouts?

[tomskip]

Never seen a hedgehog in 33+ years in London. Never seen a squashed one on the road either. I doubt there are many in ED, mores the pity.

[precious star]

No... i have not seen one either in the 40 years ive lived in east dulwich. Its a shame how mankind has destroyed all there natrual habitat.

[Broadbean]

We used to have them in our garden and lots of them about 15-20 years ago as most people had metal railing dividing their gardens so they were able to move easily from garden to garden , but as people started putting up solid wooden fences they gradually disappeared . They were great to watch at night as they came into the garden to eat all the slugs and snails .

[civilservant]

a few years ago i contacted the British Hedgehog Preservation Society when they launched their hedgehog campaign

they confirmed that for some reason hedgehogs are rare to nonexistent in SE London

i don't think they are much more abundant in other parts of London but i do know that there a few surviving in Regent's Park https://www.royalparks.org.uk/managing-the-parks/conservation-and-improvement-projects/hedgehogs

they are little inoffensive creatures and i am sorry to hear they are struggling to survive

ETA more recent data on London sightings https://bighedgehogmap.org/ they seem to have left ED for Penge!

[Hilja]

I saw my first live one ever a couple of weeks ago, at dusk in the back garden (close to Alleyne's playing field). It seemed to be eating suet pellets put out for the birds. I haven't seen as many slugs & snails around this year as in the past; eaten by hedgehogs or a result of the dry summer last year I wonder? Perhaps the current rain will bring them out.

Advice from Hedgehog Street (www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/)is to leave meaty cat or dog food out for them (though that tends to get eaten by - cats or foxes...).

[dimples]

I use to get a hedgehog come to my garden in Barry road when I lived there 20 years ago . The last hedgehog I saw locally was about 5 years ago in Peckham rye park but sadly in the day .he wasn?t looking great and the next day he was found in the pond 😢

[JickieC]

we saw two last summer up in the cubs/camping grounds in Dulwich

[mikeb]

My wife said she saw one a few weeks ago in our back garden, not far from Alleyns. If they are indeed "rare to non-existent" then I shall have to tell her that it was a slow-moving rat.

[BrandNewGuy]

There are hedgehogs on Green Dale fields and around Dog Kennel Hill Wood. But they're very elusive :)

[Elfy]

I live in West Dulwich and last year I nearly stepped on a hedgehog on my neighbour's doorstep. We're near to some playing fields where there are some overgrown brambles, etc... perhaps they live there?

I've also heard owls and woodpeckers. And there are LOADS of foxes. Although there are LOADS of foxes everywhere aren't there?

[skylorikeet]

I saw one in the gardens at Bell House on College Road last month.

[bob]

As BB said 30 years ago we use to get a few some times a whole family that was when hedges divided gardens sadly now it the horrid wooden fences so they cant get about.

Bob S

[fishbiscuits]

I've seen a couple around Dulwich Village / College Rd before. Rare, though.

[Growlybear]

We have a hedgehog who turns up from time to time in Wood Vale.

[Nigello]

The programme item was about a man who persuaded his neighbours to cut small hedgehog-sized holes in their fences. Where once there was one hedgehog there are now 25! If you know there is one near you, why not cut a hole in your fence and ask the neighbour to do so as well, and ask that neighbour to ask his neighbour ,etc..?

[creditwheredue]

I saw one in College Road a couple of weeks ago, about 10pm.

[civilservant]

good to hear that the SE London hedgehogs seem to be rallying

our fences are more holes than wood, so they're welcome to come live in our garden and snack on our pet slugs and snails any time

[Passiflora]

So glad there are hedgehogs around the local area and especially in Greendale. The place is a natural habitat for lots of creatures.

I remember my Mum with the stag beetles and families of hedgehogs turning up every night in the back garden and I loved watching them shuffling along and having something to drink.

[Nigello]

I am please there are a few sightings, but there don't seem to be that many. (Of course, there could be lots of sightings by people who don't use EDF.) I suppose that people living nearer to "wild' areas (Dawson's Hill; P Rye/Park; Dulwich Park; Dulwich Wood) may be more likely to see them but I would love to find out that the large areas of connected gardens formed by the rectangles of terraced houses are home to them.

[muffins78]

Since reading the post, I?ve looked again at getting hedgehogs (not as pets), and the idea of opening gardens for them is great. My friend said you can get hedgehog houses, so am going to try that in our garden, and see what happens. It be amazing to have them and feed them if needs be!

I must say this year we have less slugs and snails, so as we are near Woodvale, perhaps they are in the area unbeknownst to us :)

[Penguin68]

Do remember that slug pellets and hedgehogs don't mix (they don't mix with toads and frogs either)- in both cases poisoned slugs eaten by either will do them no good.

[Nigello]

Muffins78, let us know how you get on. Perhaps you will be successful because of where you are.

[se22cat]

We used to have families of hedgehogs regularly in the back gardens of Crawthew Grove, back in the 80s when most all of the back fences were picketed with lots of space for them to travel around, especially as lots of the fences had been in place seemingly since the 60s-70s(not sure how they got to Crawthew and where from...).

But then in the 90s people started doing up their gardens, a lot of this probably children who moved back into the family home after their parents died and even more people just did some basic renovations before selling on their late parents homes. I guess because of this the road became less and less viable for our spiny friends and I haven't seen any since those days, sadly.

[hpsaucey]

About to put in a new fence in back garden. Using a picket fence partly for this reason - to give wildlife more freedom to move around. Have visiting foxes. Would be nice to get hedgehogs.

HP