Three years ago the strip of scrub behind the retail park was mown flat twice a summer and nothing lived in it. Then the mowing stopped, a volunteer group started leaving the edges alone, and this spring a survey found hedgehog droppings at eleven points along a 400-metre stretch.
That is not a dramatic number. It is, however, the first time hedgehogs have been recorded on this site since [year of last record]. The important part is not the hedgehogs themselves but the corridor: the scrub connects two gardens that were previously cut off from each other by a fence line and a lit footpath.
Why the edges matter
Hedgehogs move roughly a kilometre a night when they have somewhere to go. A single tidy garden is a dead end. A scruffy strip linking several gardens is a route. The difference between the two is usually a decision about mowing, not about money.
You do not have to build habitat. You mostly have to stop removing it.
What is still unknown: whether the population is breeding on site or passing through. The survey team is putting out footprint tunnels in autumn to find out.