2023-12-06 16:34:00
They live almost everywhere in Germany and are not yet directly endangered, but are close to vulnerable. In 2024, common hedgehogs (Braunbrustigel) will once again become “Animal of the Year” here – for the second time. The German Wildlife Foundation reported this in early December (German Wildlife Foundation) in Hamburg.
This decision was made by the fund’s sponsors, who, during the final vote, made their choice between hedgehogs, common squirrels and red foxes. Previously, in more than three decades of the Tier des Jahres program in Germany, only six animals were in the spotlight twice: the river otter, wild cat, common hamster, brown hare, European bison and red deer. At the same time, the foxes and squirrels that have now reached the finals have not yet been included in the list at all. Garden dormouse – “Wild Animals of the Year 2023” – will pass the virtual baton to German hedgehogs.
Hunting in the garden at nightPhoto: Goldmann/picture alliance
What are the experts’ concerns?
It is becoming more and more difficult for hedgehogs in Germany to find suitable places to live and breed. At the same time, many individual populations become isolated due to highways and other obstacles created by humans, which threatens genetic diversity with all the attendant negative consequences for the species.
Modern rural landscapes are not suitable for hedgehogs, which readily live in areas with a heterogeneous structure – alternating damp meadows, shrubs, green fences, orchards, and so on. However, due to intensive agriculture, such places are becoming fewer. Hedgehogs have to move into gardens near residential buildings and parks. According to the foundation’s experts, there are now nine times more hedgehogs in German cities than in rural areas.
While searching for new places, partners and food, hedgehogs often find themselves under the wheels of cars – about half a million every year. However, such a high figure at the same time indirectly indicates that the population as a whole is still quite large, although experts cannot estimate this figure even approximately.
Hedgehogs live everywhere in Germany. This photo was taken in Baden-Württemberg Photo: imageBROKER/picture alliance
How to help hedgehogs?
In areas close to humans, hedgehogs, which are predominantly nocturnal, thrive best in overgrown garden areas, where they find enough secluded corners to hide during the day and hunt at night. Therefore, environmentalists call for leaving at least part of the territory around houses in an abandoned or wild state, to abandon the establishment of complete order and the creation of various kinds of lifeless spaces such as gravel or stone gardens.
In recent years, gardens without plants have become popular in Germany and some communities have even begun to prohibit private owners from designing their plots in this way, since they get very hot in the summer and do not contribute to the protection of the climate and nature.
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