It is up to us to save the hedgehog from inexorable decline

No amount of rolling into a ball and hoping things will get better can save the animal from its decline

Hedgehogs: The perfect reflection of British temperament (Getty )

Like the sparrow, the once plentiful, almost ubiquitous hedgehog has suffered a precipitous decline in its population. No amount of rolling into a ball and hoping things will get better can save the hedgehog from its seemingly inexorable decline, as the first census for several years shows numbers are down by 50 per cent because of development and badgers. Homo sapiens must come to the rescue of Erinaceus europaeus.

Of course, hedgehogs can prove to be their own worst enemies, their natural curiosity getting the better of them all too often. We know very well, after all, that they have poor road sense. And while decent swimmers, for a rather hydro-undynamic sort of shape, they aren’t much good at crawling out of garden pools or ponds. Only this week we heard the news that a Boltonian hedgehog had got its head stuck in a bottle of mayonnaise, later to be rescued by firefighters.

So we humans can do so much more to help the hedgehogs who cohabit with us on these isles: we can live in peaceful coexistence in a spirit of mutual respect and celebration in diversity. We: smooth, mostly hairless and big. They: spiny, flea-ridden and small. Ideal compatriots.

We should drive more carefully and be hedgehog (and fox, and badger, for that matter) aware. We shouldn’t casually discard bottles of mayonnaise, and we should always cover pools and ponds. Slug pellets are bad for them, too, so are best avoided in our gardens. Log piles are welcome; they are, apparently, the ideal environment for a homeless hedgehog.

Oliver Colvile, Conservative MP for Plymouth, should be praised for his imaginative suggestion that the hedgehog should be granted the status of UK national animal, alongside the wren, the bulldog and the Scottish terrier. Often helpless, sometimes squashed but always game, they are a perfect reflection of the British temperament.