RESIDENTS and businesses in Watchet have been thanked for their help during the past year in protecting the town’s hedgehog population.

Jane Sharp, who founded Watchet Hedgehogs with the late Nick Cotton and others in 2020, said they were all ‘hedgehog heroes’.

Ms Sharp said in the past three years the group had attracted more than 1,000 supporters, many of whom had made their gardens hedgehog-friendly, provided nesting boxes and feeding stations, and ensured their gardens were part of a ‘hedgehog highway’.

The support comes as the Woodland Trust highlighted a serious decline in the UK’s ‘favourite spiky little mammal’.

The trust said it was believed hedgehog numbers could be down by more than half in rural areas and a third in urban areas since 2000.

It said a major cause of the decline was probably the loss and damage of suitable habitat, such as hedgerows and woodland, which both deprived the animals of food and of shelter from badger predation.

Ms Sharp said her Watchet group supported Hoglets Hedgehog Rescue, run by Simon and Louise Dunn, in Sampford Brett, who had taken in more 60 poorly and orphaned hedgehogs in 2023.

She also thanked Heidrun Humphries for fostering hedgehogs before they were released back into the wild, and local veterinary practices White Lodge and Glenmore House, where vets had given a lot of time and resources to helping hedgehogs taken in for assessment.

Ms Sharp was also grateful to the ‘hedgehog transport’ volunteers who took poorly animals to Secret World Wildlife Rescue, in Highbridge, and the RSPCA wildlife unit, in West Hatch.

She said: “There are so many of you to thank for the marvellous things you have done to help our hedgehogs, not just in Watchet but in the surrounding towns and villages and places further afield.

“Thank you to the crafters among you who have made and donated items for us to sell for Hoglets Hedgehog Rescue funds, and to the members who help run fund-raising stalls.

“Thank you to the local gentlemen who make hedgehog boxes, providing cosy homes for hedgehogs.

“I must also thank local traders who have helped raise awareness of these important little creatures by taking part in a ‘hedgehog trail’ during the summer, and for donating money and essential food for Hoglets Hedgehog Rescue.

“In no particular order I would like to say a massive thank you to those of you who have been concerned about hedgehogs seen out in the day, or poorly and injured hedgehogs and who have taken them to a rescue or vet, have spread the word to friends and neighbours far and wide, have helped with awareness of hedgehogs at outdoor stalls.”

More information about Watchet Hedgehogs can be found on its website here.