Hedgehogs may become extinct within 15 years

Hedgehogs could disappear from Britain within 15 years, a new study has found.

Once commonplace across the country, they are among 10 indigenous species to have suffered the most dramatic decline over the past century.

It is estimated that there are now around one million hedgehogs in Britain, representing a decline of 25 per cent over the past decade. In some parts of the country, the fall could be as high as 50 per cent.

Such is the rate of decline that the long term survival of the hedgehog in Britain is now in doubt.

It joins, among others, the black-tailed godwit, cuckoo, red squirrel and natterjack toad on a list compiled by researchers on behalf Eden, a digital natural history channel. To read more, click here.

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Church bells, hedgerows, and now hedgehogs face extinction in the British Isles.