I met the founder of a West Midlands hedgehog rescue charity

Express & Star

Lauren speaks to Joan Lockley who founded the West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue about what we can do to help the dwindling population

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Rosie. That's Rosie. I'm with Joan. I'm Joan, I'm Rosie's mum. This is Rosie's mum, Joan.

00:10Yeah, prickly character. Joan, thank you so much for having us at your home slash hedgehog sanctuary.

00:17You're very welcome. I've been really looking forward to this and I just wanted to talk to you about

00:22why you started your West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue and when you did.

00:28Oh gosh, it's been nearly 24 years now. Just one hedgehog walked across the garden

00:36and the next day it was still there and the only thing I knew about hedgehogs was you should never

00:41see them in the daytime. So with this instinct for animals and loving animals, I picked it up,

00:48brought it in and got in touch with the local vet and said, don't laugh at me, but do you know

00:55anything about hedgehogs? And he said no, but he knew somebody in Cannock who did. So I took this

01:02hedgehog to this woman, I've forgotten her name now, Sue Thropp. Sue Thropp. And she's back 10

01:09years ago and I said, what do you do? And she said, well you just put them in a hutch and feed them,

01:14which is long, long away from the truth. I said, well I could do that. I had one,

01:22then people started saying that woman up the road rescues hedgehogs and then I got a member,

01:28become a member, not a member, what do you call it when you rescue? A registered carer with the

01:34British Hedgehog Preservation Society. They have my number, all my details, so if anybody found

01:42a hedgehog, they'd ring them up, Hedgehog Society would give that person my number and then it

01:49started. But over the years, other hedgehog rescues, she's only covering her head, they've

01:56all packed in, so I'm the last one standing. So I'm taking in, as I said, 730 this year.

02:05Is that from, do you find a lot of them yourself, a lot of them coming in from people or is it like

02:0950-50? Do a lot of people bring them in? It is about 50-50, like I had a call from

02:16Bilbrook today and I went through my volunteers, nobody could help, they're at work or whatever,

02:23and this lady who you met just, she went to Bilbrook to pick that one up.

02:28Otherwise, you know, they will bring them to me, but not if they can help it.

02:33Literally just before we got here, Joan had another special delivery of another little hedgehog that

02:39she's going to help as well. Why is it so important then that we help these hedgehogs

02:44when we see them in the daytime maybe? Actually, I was going to ask you another question, they're

02:49kind of two separate questions really, but how can you tell when a hedgehog needs to be helped

02:55and why is it so important to then help the hedgehog? The golden rule is you should never

03:01see a hedgehog out in the day. I get people ringing up and saying it's okay, it's running

03:06round, it's feeding. No, it isn't. If it's out in the day, there's a problem. The running round,

03:12etc., could be fear, could be pain. Them eating, that self-preservation instinct,

03:22when they know they're in trouble, never see a hedgehog out in the day. And of course,

03:26they're part of the ecosystem, this chain, but we've now absolutely covered, the gardens are

03:34covered in slugs and snails and all sorts of nasties that are eating, you know, the plants.

03:43And these will eat anything that gets in front of the nose. They're called a gardener's friend

03:49because when it gets dark, they'll put their nose down and eat anything. Clean up all the little bugs.

03:55Yeah, even a frog or a bird on the ground, they'll eat anything. Well, because we're losing them,

04:02the gardens are full of all these horrible creatures. Well, so it's so important for our

04:08ecosystems then, isn't it, really? And I mean, at my house, really, we try and grow plants and then

04:14the slugs get to a little herb garden, all the slugs get to them before we can get them. So,

04:19what, I mean, how do we, yeah, how do we get some, get more hedgehogs out there? How do we make sure

04:26that they're still, why are they dwindling? Why are the numbers dwindling? Well, number one is

04:30lots of habitats. I've always said this. I mean, if you think of, you wouldn't know, many years ago,

04:40nobody had cars. You were very well off if you had cars about 70 years ago. And you all had pretty

04:48front gardens, didn't you? Now, everybody in the household's got a car. Mom, dad, son, daughter,

04:56they've got nowhere to put them. So, they've ripped up all the front gardens and replaced

05:02them with concrete. You're getting more housing estate, you're getting more roads,

05:08and we're just taking away their habitat. The farmers pulled up 300,000 mile

05:16of hedgerows, 300,000 mile hedgehogs. So, we're losing them. There's nowhere for them to go.

05:26What's then, what's the brighter side of things? What can people do to

05:33to invite more hedgehogs into their gardens and to, you know,

05:38yeah, well, I guess, just make a nicer habitat for them so that we can start to see more. What can

05:43we do as people? Well, a rough patch in the garden. Lovely, pretty, pristine gardeners are no good for

05:50wildlife. You need it rough, you know, so they can hide in. They've got a habitat, they've got somewhere

05:55to nest and feed them. It's so simple. I mean, I was telling Tim how to make a feeding station to

06:03stop the cats from stealing the food, and water is very important. Throughout the summer, we lose

06:12thousands of hedgehogs because people don't put a shallow bowl of water down.

06:18They keep the birdbath filled up. Yeah, but the hedgehogs obviously can't reach that, can they?

06:23Yeah, and of course the mums can't feed the babies. The babies die, so, and this time of the year is a

06:31very bad time of the year for these, what we call AJs or autumn juveniles, because the mum gives birth,

06:40not all of them, in the autumn, and these little ones, there's nothing for them. They're born to

06:46cold, wet nights, and they've got to find their own food, which is disappearing, and like your

06:53dog and your cat, they've got worms. Well, when they get to that stage where their health is

06:58breaking down because of lack of substance, is it sustenance? Sustenance, yeah. I guess,

07:06I think so. Sustenance, yeah, food. Yeah, yeah, of course. The worms take over.

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