Dangers and help for hedgehogsThe right way to help hedgehogs

With their round beady eyes and a coat of up to 8,000 spines, hedgehogs are unmistakable. These nocturnal animals also like to pay a visit to gardens. You can do something good for hedgehogs in just a few simple steps.

Hedgehogs rest during the day and like to rummage around in the leaves at dusk and at night for their next meal. These prickly animals prefer to roam in natural gardens and on the outskirts of settlements. They hibernate from the end of October. To help hedgehogs through the winter, you can already do something for them in the fall and summer.

Hedgehogs retreat to embankments, dense hedges or piles of leaves during the day. As agricultural land spreads and gardens are often too tidy and sterile, hedgehogs lack places to hide. If you want to do something good for the animals, design your garden in a natural way. Choose native plant species and sow wild herbs and flowers to attract insects. Hedgehogs like it messy, so it's best to mow less and leave dead plants, leaves and piles of garden waste lying around - they make ideal winter quarters. You can also put up a hedgehog house.¹ A wooden box at least 40 centimetres wide and long and 30 centimetres high is suitable for each hedgehog. It is important that the hedgehog house is protected from rain and wind, has an insulating and dry base and is lined with leaves. To give hedgehogs more space to roam, holes in the fence to neighboring gardens are helpful. These should be at least 13 centimetres wide and high.

Every year, robotic lawnmowers kill many hedgehogs because they do not recognize animals as an obstacle. Hedgehogs are not flight animals; instead, they curl up into a spiky ball on the spot in the event of danger. The sharp blades of the robotic lawnmower roll over the animals and seriously injure them. If the animals survive, they often drag themselves into the bushes, where they then die in agony. Leaf vacuum cleaners and blowers are also dangerous: hedgehogs can be sucked in and killed. It is therefore best if garden owners do not use such devices. If you still want to use them, you should at least only use them during the day, as hedgehogs only come out of their hiding places at dusk. Please check the lawn, hedges and bushes before use and keep an eye on the devices while they are in use.

As wild animals, hedgehogs are best kept in the wild. It is also legally forbidden to take wild animals from the wild. You should only take in a hedgehog if it is absolutely necessary and release it back into the wild once it has recovered. Hedgehogs that are really in need of help are severely underweight, injured or sick. You can recognize sick hedgehogs, for example, by the fact that they stagger, cough or rattle, behave listlessly or are infested with parasites. Orphaned young hedgehogs that wander around during the day need help immediately. In such cases, please visit a veterinary practice or contact one of the member associations of the German Animal Welfare Federation. Young hedgehogs must also weigh at least 550 grams in order to survive hibernation. Adult hedgehogs should not weigh less than one kilogram before they go into hibernation. Otherwise, the animals are dependent on supplementary feeding.