Did you know that the number of British hedgehogs has declined by at least 30% since the year 2000?
In 2019, we were one of the first universities in the country to join the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative. We want to make our campus hog-friendly, through the education of how you can help hedgehogs, joining in and promoting national campaigns such as Hedgehog Awareness Week and by making the environment in which they live as safe and welcoming as we can.
Since then, we’ve gone on to achieve the Bronze, Silver, and most recently Gold award. We are one of the first universities in the country to reach this level of the campaign and are thrilled to be helping hedgehogs in our city.
You might be wondering what a Hedgehog Friendly Campus looks like… ours includes:
- Dedicated hedgehog “hogitats” including log piles, leaf piles and rewilded areas
- #BeTheirAmbulance – we keep an eye out on our local hedgehogs and take them to a wildlife friendly vet/rescue if necessary
- Stickers on our ground team’s gardening equipment to remind them to watch out for hedgehogs
- Regular campus and local area litter picks using our resident C.L.E.A.N hub kit
- Hedgehog surveying lessons – open to everyone – that allow us to record and monitor mammal populations locally
- Hedgehog Friendly Gardening sessions on campus
- Signage to ask drivers to Slow down for hedgehogs (more of this soon!)
- Research that will help hedgehogs – one of our Masters students is currently looking into a very interesting subject (we’ll share more details once she’s finished her course)
- A working group that consists of staff, students, senior leadership at our university, and members of the public
- Regular hedgehog related events; including fundraising for the British Hedgehog Society who fund this wonderful project
- Sharing best practice with other institutions
And much more!
We are always more than happy to advise local businesses and community groups on how they can help hedgehogs in their area. Please do drop us an email at environment@lincoln.ac.uk if you’d like our support.
If you’d like to read more about what we’ve been up to and our steps to Gold, you can read our 2021 roundup below:
Project Status:
Gold
Project initiated: September 2019
Bronze achieved: 2020
Silver achieved: 2021
Gold achieved: 2022
Project team:
Project Lead: Alexandra Foxley-Johnson
E.C.O Society Representative
Hedgehog Friendly Campus Student Ambassadors:
- Emily Williams
- Tepher Ward
Featured
Miss our feature during the University of Lincoln’s Summer Watch with Chris Packham? You can watch the full YouTube Live below. Our Hedgehog Friendly Campus Lead Alex Foxley-Johnson joins Chris in talking all about hedgehogs, foxes and more:
Would you recommend being part of Hedgehog Friendly Campus and if so, why?
Definitely! If anyone has an interest in hedgehogs with no prior knowledge or if you happen to be a secret hedgie-expert, this is a great campaign to be involved in – and personally I learnt a lot about them that I didn’t know before! It’s a really good feeling to be part of a group working towards improving the environment and being able to work on projects on campus, it helped me feel more connected to the space and built my confidence working as part of a team. Also, who wouldn’t want the chance to bake hedgehog cakes…
Essentially, if you’re thinking about it, don’t hesitate to get involved! You won’t regret it.
Project updates
- December 2021
- May 2021
- March 2021
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2019
Over the last few months, we’ve been working to document our rewilded spaces and record hedgehog sightings.
We’ve also been featured in BBC Wildlife Magazine!
This month begins with #HedgehogWeek! We’ve put together a full schedule of events throughout the week which includes; Hedgehog surveying, Hogfriendly gardening, a special CLEAN Hub event, the launch of twilight wildlife safaris, and a special open meeting with the BGU Hogfriendly team!
The University of Lincoln has been awarded the Silver accreditation from the national Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme.
Read our full article on what this means here: University of Lincoln achieves Hedgehog Friendly Silver award
We are preparing for #HedgehogAwarenessWeek from 04th – 08th May 2020, with some online events. Join us for our Online Working Group Meeting and our Hedgehog First Aid Webinar! Full details can be found on this news post: Hedgehog Awareness Week Events
A fabulous time building our Hedgehog Friendly Campus hogitats on the Brayford Campus on our building event on 10th March! Four new log piles were created with wood from our Riseholme campus in varying degrees of age, leaves gathered and lots of twigs. Hopefully, this will encourage lots of insects for our prickly pals (& other wildlife). Finished off the event with a much deserved Fairtrade brew & some divine chocolate. Thank you to everyone who attended.
Our second Hedgehog Friendly Bake Sale took place this month, we raised a brilliant £56 for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society with our Hedgehog Friendly Campus Bake Sale! If you want to make a donation, just follow this link: Donate to the BHPS on JustGiving
We think it’s safe to say our hogfriendly bake-off was a success! We sold out of all of our cakes in under 2 hours. Thank you to everyone who swung by to support us. We’re definitely going to organise another one soon!
Thanks to all our staff & student & alumni bakers.
Our bake-off winner was the Grantham Gingerhog baked by Andrea from our Estates Department.🦔
The University of Lincoln has been awarded the Bronze Award by Hedgehog Friendly Campus after our December submission.
To achieve Bronze, our university “hogfriendly” team has done the following:
- Held a Hedgehog Friendly Campus launch event in November
- Campaigned to #RememberHedgehogs during Bonfire Night
- Raised money for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society
- Set up a dedicated social media account – follow @UoLHedgie on Twitter
- Reminded our grounds team about hedgehog first aid
- Stickered all of our gardening equipment with reminders to take care around hedgehog habitats
- Provided information about hedgehogs on campus
And much more! Keep an eye out for more events this year, including creation of hedgehog habitats and feeding stations, a surveying workshop and first aid lecture.
Both our Riseholme Grounds Team and our contractors Four Oaks Landscaping have now attached stickers on gardening equipment (including strimmers and leaf blowers) reminding them to take care for hedgehogs.
If you’d like to encourage your local company or council to become hedgehog friendly, you can request stickers from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society: Hedgehog Heroes Roll of Honour
The team have also submitted for the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Bronze Award, details to be announced in January 2020!
Hedgehog Friendly Campus meeting is launched! On November 1st 2019, we held a day of events:
- Jo Wilkinson, the founder of Hedgehog Friendly Campus, delivered a talk from 13:00 – 13:20, in NDH 1010 (second floor lecture theatre) on how to survey for hedgehogs.
- There was a bake-off in order to raise money for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society – we raised £43!
- LPAC ran another wonderful planting session (planting flower bulbs & sowing wildflower seeds) in the morning from 10-12pm. #bloomingLPAC
- Our first staff, student and public campus litter pick was a success at 14:00, meeting outside of the NDH Building. Thank you to CleanHub Lincoln for lending us the gear!
If you would like to view the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/493113844751926/
The first Hedgehog Friendly Campus meeting is held with a member of the Environment team and the Wildlife and Conservation Society President.
Actions taken include:
- Invitation to E.C.O Society, Environmental Manager, Facilities Manager and the Head of Space Strategy, Planning & Sustainability to next meeting, set for the second week of October 2019
- Discussion around launch event, preliminarily set for end of October 2019/beginning of November 2019
- Creation of social media account for campaign purposes – @UoLHedgie
- Design of graphics for use across social media
- Contact with local city councillor about the launch of the campaign and future involvement
Project questions
I want to learn more about hedgehogs!
We have a number of training sessions and webinars available for staff, students and members of the public to attend. If you’re interested in finding out more, drop us an email at environment@lincoln.ac.uk
- Hedgehog First Aid (Webinar)
- Hedgehog Surveying Workshop (Webinar)
- Helping Hedgehogs in the Autumn (Webinar)
- Surveying Workshops (in person), dates will be confirmed in Spring 2022
- Hogitat building (in person), dates will be confirmed in Spring 2022
How do I get involved?
Anyone wanting to get involved in the campaign can do any or all of the following:
- Join one of the two societies who are supporting the campaign, the E.C.O Society or Wildlife and Conservation Society
- Volunteer to set up or take part in a litter pick – let’s make our campus as safe as possible for hedgies!
- Become one of our Hedgehog Friendly Campus Student Ambassadors
- Raise some money for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on campus
- Share campaign graphics on social media – you can download them at the bottom of the page
We welcome new ideas for this project so please get in touch with us by emailing environment@lincoln.ac.uk
I've found a sick/injured hedgehog, what do I do?
If you’ve come across a hedgehog in Lincoln in the daytime, or you can see it’s injured or sick, contact any of the following:
- Our local rescue Andrews Hedgehog Hospital on 01724 872 726
- The British Hedgehog Preservation society on 01584 890 801
There are some tips on how to identify what might be wrong with a hedgehog at the bottom of this page.
You can also call campus security on 01522 886062 or Estates on 01522 886777
You can also email environment@lincoln.ac.uk or tweet us at @uolhedgie
