This blog has been written by Karen Thomas of the Landkey Hedgehog group....

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Landkey Hedgehog Group were delighted to be asked to speak at Landkey primary school assembly about hedgehogs. We had brought with us our mascot, which had yet to be named, for the children to suggest suitable names and a winner announced at the end of the week.

During our talk we had a video  footage of hedgehogs in a local garden along with sightings of other wildlife such as mice, blackbird and a local marauding cat!

We started with facts about hedgehogs – how many spines they had, how far they travelled each night looking for food and a medieval myth of being able to carry fruit on their spines!

We talked about what hedgehogs would eat in the wild but how we can help to supplement their diets with dry or wet cat and dog food and always providing a bowl of water.  We stressed that hedgehogs don’t eat milk, bread or meal worms.

Finally our talked ended with the hedgehogs habitat. How we can all make our gardens hedgehog friendly through making hedgehog highways, leaving wild areas and checking before strimming or lighting bonfires.

The children had many questions at the end of the session plus stories of how they had found hedgehogs down drains and caught in litter.

We hope to go back to the school to advice on hedgehog highways and give another talk in the autumn.

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...Karen Thomas has recently spoken on BBC Radio Devon to share what she and the group have been doing in the Village. Great work guys! To find out more about the group on their Facebook page (6) Landkey Hedgehog Group | Facebook

Photo credits: Karen Thomas