Myerscough continues to evolve ‘Hedgehog Friendly Campus’ status

The Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme aims to raise awareness of the plight of hedgehog, while taking practical steps to improve habitats and circumstances for hedgehogs across university campuses. The Hedgehog Friendly Campus project is funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and runs nationally.

Myerscough College's main centre at Bilsborrow is officially a Hedgehog Friendly Campus. As part of this, students from across all levels have worked together to create two new hedgehog homes, to assist the animals in their habitat.

This week, they received their grand opening.

Lecturer in Animal Studies, Frankie Kerridge, said: ‘’We are a Hedgehog Friendly campus.

‘’There are all sorts of things that students can do. From walks on campus to look for hazards, publicising what we do and raising money.

‘’We did a tunnel track survey last year and we have hedgehogs in at least four different spots on campus.

‘’These fantastic hedgehog homes have been built to keep on campus. They will be hidden and we hope that hedgehogs will visit them and ideally hibernate in them over winter.

‘’They’ve been built using upcycled materials, including some blue pallet wood and felt on the top to keep them waterproof.

‘’The design also encourages lots of insects and earthworms and beetles so they have plenty to feast on.’’

The idea of a Hedgehog Friendly Campus began at Sheffield University in 2018, and last year, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society funded a national roll-out. The campaign offers Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of accreditation, by undergoing activities including surveys, building hedgehog houses, hedgehog decline awareness, rescue, and fundraising.

Hedgehogs are officially listed as vulnerable to extinction on Britain’s IUCN Red List, and have declined around 50% in rural areas and 30% in urban areas in the last twenty years. The way green space is managed can have a big impact on the survival of hedgehogs, making the Myerscough campus ideal to be considered or such status.

Click here for more national info from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Click here to view the full range of Animal Studies programmes available at Myerscough College and University Centre

There are perhaps just a million hedgehogs left, representing a 97% fall from the 30 million estimated to have roamed the UK in the 1950s.

This decline has been in part attributed to the fragmentation of hedgehog’s favourite habitat with the loss of hedgerows and familiar countryside habitats, leading hedgehogs to move into more urban environments where litter, busy roads and impermeable garden fencing and walls, significantly impact on their survival.