Wildlife rehabilitation is the treatment and care of a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal and its preparation for release to a successful life back in the wild.
We are a single species rescue specialising in the care of our native wild European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus).
The hedgehogs that are in our care come to us because they are poorly, injured, underweight or orphaned. We help hundreds of hedgehogs every year and have a high success rate in the treatment and rehabilitation of hedgehogs and releasing them back to the wild.
Our rescue centre is open 24/7, 365 days to care for all sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs.
With your support and donations we care for hundreds of hedgehogs every year.
Hedgehogs are one of the few wild mammals we sometimes encounter up close and are a firm favourite of the British public. Sadly, we’re seeing concerning population declines across the UK. Between 2000 – 2014 hedgehog populations declined by over half in our countryside and nearly a third in our cities and suburbs.
In recent years, evidence has pointed towards a decline in abundance in many areas, particularly in rural environments (Hubert et al. 2011; van de Poel et al. 2015, Williams et al. 2018, Wembridge et al. 2022). Scaled to a 10-year period and primarily using data gathered from long-term citizen-science programmes, estimates of national-level declines span 19% in Great Britain (applying the data and protocol used in the British Red List of Terrestrial Mammals to a 10-year period.
They’re now considered “vulnerable to extinction” in Great Britain and “at risk” in the rest of Europe according to the IUCN.
Despite covering just 6% of land, urban landscapes are increasingly important for hedgehogs. The matrix of gardens and green spaces in towns and cities can support the highest densities of hedgehogs and may act as a refuge from agricultural practices and high predator density.
Habitat loss from new developments, in-filling of gardens with housing, roads, impermeable boundaries and ‘over-management’ of green-spaces and gardens are all, however, threats.
There are a variety of factors contributing to hedgehogs’ decline, including:
Wildlife rehabilitation centres such as ours provide a vital service caring for wild animals in the UK but rely upon the generosity of donors to keep us running, along with a small army of volunteers.
Dorset Hedgehog Rescue seeks a new Treasurer to lead the Board on financial issues. Dorset Hedgehog Rescue is run by a Board of Trustees from a variety of backgrounds and
It’s a proper hive of activity here today, we have Barclays and Darwin Ecology employees here for a corporate volunteering day and they are erecting the walk-in runs and individual
Belated thanks to Margaret Green Animal rescue for this big load of cat and dog meat pouches that would go out of date before they could use them. We are
Many thanks to Donna, the community champion from Tesco Kinson (Kinson in the community), for a generous donation of £440.00 received this morning from their charity bookstall for the month
The treatment and admin area is complete now, and looks considerably better than the previous workbenches. The reception area will be painted this week and once that has been done,
Catherine Midgley from Oakdale Runners organised a fundraising raffle at Christmas time. The raffle raised £3,632 which was split between four charities who all received £908 each. Catherine came over
