Wildlife conservation project: Wild bird and hedgehog
rescue stations Germany

A helping hand for hedgehogs in need

The European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is one of our most popular wild animals. Along with the bee and the Common Toad, it is one of the oldest existing animal species on Earth. Its ancestors lived around 65 million years ago, and its appearance has remained largely unchanged for about 15 million years. The name hedgehog came into use around 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge (hedge), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge (hog), from its piglike snout. Other names include urchin, hedgepig and furze-pig.

In the past, one could hardly imagine hedge-lined meadow orchards, semi-natural green spaces, and extensive structurally rich gardens without a resident hedgehog. Here, it found a variety of retreats: undisturbed daytime hiding places, safe nesting sites, herb-rich hedge borders (fringe biotopes), and extensively used wild and orchard meadows with a rich insect food supply.

Threat factors

Nowadays, hedgehogs can be thankful if they find anywhere at all to survive. Humans have become the hedgehog's worst enemy with their never-ending intervention in the landscape, the use of almost 28,000 tons of pesticides on German farmland annually, and an almost manic craze for neatness and order in the natural structures of the countryside.

• More than 235,000 km of the supra-regional road network and 38,500 km of rail network divide and fragment the countryside, isolating hedgehog populations and making their foraging migration life-threatening. Germany alone records up to 500,000 hedgehog roadkills every year.
• Large-scale monoculture and agricultural toxins destroy the hedgehog's habitat and prey. Sterile immaculate gardens, fenced-in to keep out wildlife and stocked with alien plants, are no habitat for a hedgehog.
• The increasing use of technical garden equipment such as brush cutters, high-tech lawnmowers, robot mowers and leaf blowers may satisfy the craze for neatness and tidiness in our gardens and impress the neighbours but can be fatal for the hedgehog. Their use causes severe injuries to hedgehogs' feet, cuts to their faces, breaks their jaws or even scalps them completely. Leaf blowers, in particular, turn small stones into missiles, causing serious injury to the hedgehog's eyes and nose.

The dry and hot summers of the last few years do the rest:

• There is an increasing water shortage in the open cleared countryside. Small ponds, streams and ditches dry up earlier or disappear completely, and with them valuable small food-rich biotopes.
• Consequently, the soil dries out in early summer, and the hedgehog's prey, such as worms, beetles, snails and young mice, are fewer in number or disappear entirely.
• As a result of increasing food deprivation, weakened and underweight hedgehogs cut short their hibernation and begin foraging too early in the year. This strategy is usually unsuccessful because the hedgehog's prey is unavailable in March and early April.
• Today, the hedgehog – once a common sight – is already on the early warning list of the ‘Red List of Mammals in Germany’.

The reason for and the aims of conservation

Hedgehogs, but unfortunately not their habitats, are one of the strictly protected animal species throughout Europe. In autumn, you should not offer underweight, starving, or late-born hedgehogs unsuitable food or disease-causing cow's milk. You can find the best tips and advice for helping 'your' garden or park hedgehogs in late autumn here.

Our project commitment

However, when hedgehogs in dire need are found in northern Rhineland-Palatinate (the Eifel), in the Altötting district of Upper Bavaria, in the Lake Constance region as far as the Black Forest (Baden-Württemberg), in and around Berlin and in the south-east of Brandenburg in the district of Oder-Spree, they are taken to hedgehog rescue centres – which we play a key role in supporting in those areas – where they receive expert help and loving care.

At the five hedgehog rescue centres we support, and their hedgehog care outlets, up to 2.600 needy hedgehogs are lovingly and self-sacrificingly cared for every year and, if necessary, receive veterinary treatment. It is not uncommon for the young volunteer hedgehog rescuers to work at their limit. Caring for a baby or a young hedgehog is somewhat sleep-depriving and exhausting, as with human children. Hedgehog babies, for example, need to be fed special milk every two hours.

Hedgehog fosterlings who are still significantly underweight in late autumn or who are not yet capable of surviving on their own must remain in the rescue centre for the winter. These hibernators do not sleep through the night; they wake at regular intervals and need feeding and their winter boxes cleaned.

But all the effort and work are well worth it. Every helpless and injured hedgehog nursed back to health and released into suitable natural habitats contributes to the survival of this popular wildlife species. Hedgehog rescue work, usually organised voluntarily through private initiatives and requiring authorisation from the regional veterinary authorities, is only possible with regular financial support from animal lovers.

Please help us with a dedicated donation so that our lovable, fascinating hedgehogs also have a secure future with us... and we won't have to rewrite the story of "the Hare and the Hedgehog"!

• 15 euros cover the costs of rearing milk for a baby hedgehog
• 30 euros cover the feeding costs for two hedgehogs for a month
• 50 euros cover the costs of two new heating pads or a veterinary treatment