30th April – 6th May 2006
http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/
Take part in the survey :- http://www.hogwatch.org.uk/
LONDON (Reuters) – The search is on for Britain’s small, prickly, shy — and rapidly disappearing — hedgehogs.
On the eve of Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People’s Trust for Endangered Species are launching HogWatch — a plea for people to report where and when they last saw one of the inquisitive but shy animals.
“It is vital to know where hedgehogs are still present and determine why their numbers appear to be falling,” said Paul Bright, an ecology lecturer at London University.
“Hedgehogs have been around for 20 million years — we want to ensure they will be around in the next century.”
A recent survey calculated that the number of hedgehogs, which have adapted as readily to living in urban gardens as in the countryside, fell by one fifth in Britain between 2001 and 2005.
Participants in the Internet survey are asked to go to www.HogWatch.org.uk and answer three simple questions, with the accumulated results being reproduced as a hog map of Britain.
“Letting us know if you haven’t seen hedgehogs is just as important as letting us know that you have,” Bright said.
Fortunately, it’s still funny.