Hedgehog Highway

The British, in villages, don't just talk about the weather. With the right encouragement, chat about hedgehogs can improve social cohesion. Hedgehogs are, once common insectivores, that are now in rapid decline due to their tendency to end up as road traffic accidents (coiling up, is no defence against a speeding car!). There is an interesting account of the village of Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, where Chris Powles has encouraged the setting up of a 'hedgehog highway' (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/17/prickly-business-hedgehog-highway-knits-a-village-together-kirtlington-oxfordshire-aoe). He noted, that these territorial slug and snail eaters (benefitting horticulture) were often constrained by walls around gardens and had no place to go except onto roads. Hedgehogs are nocturnal beasts that can travel up to a mile each night. Chris consequently encouraged people, in Kirtlington to construct holes, ramps and staircases in the walls of their gardens. These enabled the hedgehogs to move throughout the entire village more safely. A varity of methods were used to confirm that hedgehogs used these features. What is more remarkable, is that chatting about hedgehogs seems to have solved some of the long-established human feuds in the village. A side-effect of simple conservation?