Hog spotter activity jotter electronic version

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The hog spotter activity jotter H

edgehog numbers are falling in the UK—they need our help! Gardens, parks, school grounds and other green spaces can be brilliant places for hedgehogs.

Take action

Make your garden or playground even better for hedgehogs by linking your green space with Hedgehog Highways and wild areas.

Watch, enjoy, record

Find out if you have hedgehogs visiting your garden and record your sightings on our online iSpy Hedgehog map and iRecord.

Activities

Learn more about how hedgehogs live and the threats they face with our code busters and word games.

CHECK T HE BACK CO VER TO SEE HOW YOU CAN EAR N YOUR HEDGEH OG AWARD

Take action H

edgehogs need large, well connected areas to find places to eat, nest and find mates. You can help hedgehogs by making your garden part of a hedgehog highway and by creating wild areas for hedgehogs to make nests and find minibeasts to feast on.

H Design a poster to display at your school or club, to teach others about helping hedgehogs.

We’d love to see a photo of your poster in action!

Make a hedgehog highway

edgehogs need wild areas for shelter and for finding food. Wild corners with piles of logs and leaves, patches of long grass, wildflowers and bug hotels will create lots of hidey holes for the minibeasts hedgehogs rely on, as well as natural nesting sites for hedgehogs.

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edgehogs make different nests at different times of year for resting, breeding and hibernating. Breeding and hibernating nests are made up of lots of medium sized leaves (like oak or beech leaves) and are built somewhere sturdy to hold the leaves together. Log piles, big bushes or hedgehog houses will do the trick!

Make wild nesting and feeding areas

DID YOU KNOW

A hedgehog population living in a town needs the same amount of space as around 142 football pitches! That’s lots of gardens that need to be linked by hedgehog highways.

Cut a hole in your fence or gate to create a hedgehog highway.

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Log your hedgehog highway, wild corners and nest boxes on our online map: http://hedgehogs. ispywildlife.org/

ANGIE TIGHE

SIMON WATERS

NATHAN PITTAM

Make a delux hedgehog house

Dig a hole under your fence as another way to provide access for hedgehogs.

Build a cosy hedgehog house for year-round refuge.

Place your hedgehog house along the edge of your garden and somewhere sheltered (like under a bush).

You can also build a house with bricks and cover it with leaves.

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Watch, enjoy & record Take action

Make a pooter to catch minibeasts

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edgehogs are elusive night time creatures – here are some tips and tricks to help you spot them!

Make a feeding station

Start a diary

Start a nature diary or scrapbook, recording when you find signs of hedgehogs and other creatures in your garden.

Hedgehog footprints

Watch your visiting hedgehogs at a feeding station.

Cut a 13 x 13cm hole in a clear plastic storage box, and put it where you can peek through your window at night to see it in action. Place a dish of meaty cat or dog food and a shallow dish of water inside your station and see who visits!

Ooh poo!

Looking for hedgehog droppings is an easy way to see if you have a visitor!

They are dark and full of shiny bits of bugs and seeds.

Remember not to touch any poo with your hands!

Make an animal footprint trap

DID YOU KNOW

Hedgehogs are the only prickly mammal found in the UK and adults have around 5,000 spines.

Have a go at drawing the minibeasts you find using your pooter.

For you to colour

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edgehogs like to feast on lots of different types of minibeast.

How many can you find in your garden, park or playground?

Go on a minibeast hunt Beetle

Slug

Date:

Millipede

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4

Date:

Spider

Date:

Earthworm

Snail

Date:

CREATIVE COMMONS: SLUG: BOB JENKINS, SPIDER RICHARD STOCKWELL, CATERPILLAR: LISA BROWN, MILLIPEDE: MARTIN COOPER, WORM: SCHIZOFORM EARWIG: GETTY, BEETLE: I HARVEY, SNAIL: AIDAN SEMMES

ILLUSTRATIONS: CORINNE WELCH@COPYRIGHT ROYAL SOCIETY OF WILDLIFE TRUSTS 2015

Date:

Caterpillar

Spotter sheets are a great way to record the wildlife you see in your garden, park or playground.

Follow the links at suffolkwildlife trust.org to download more.

Date:

Earwig

Date:

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Word search

Just for fun...

Get crafty!

N O C T U R N A L H

Can you find the 10 green words, in the word search?

E

Hedgehogs are nocturnal—they sleep in the day and are active at night.

They are covered in spines, which are specialised hairs, and roll into a ball to protect themselves from predators. To survive the cold winter, they make big nests and hibernate. A hedgehog gives birth to around 4-5 baby hedgehogs and these are called hoglets.

Help Harry find his way to the park

PARK

T Q C O L D S

S E G Y

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L B S D B

T A N H K L E P M E S U E M T E D I

S R

H O G L E T S N I N U S U R V I V E Y A F B C P M U Y S W T

DID YOU KNOW

Hedgehogs can travel around 2km in a night! That’s the same as five full running tracks!

ALAN O’ROURKE CC

I

P R E D A T O R S E

Code buster: what’s the link?

START Harry Hedgehog can only pass through hedgerows HERE or fences with holes in. Can you help him find his way through the gardens to the park? How many gardens is it impossible for Harry to get into?

How much?!

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Go on a pinecone hunt to create a hedgehog door hanger.

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B

C

D

E

F

G

H

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K

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Hedgehogs face lots of threats and their numbers are declining in the UK. Can you break the code to work out some of the threats they face?

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N

O

P

Q

R

S

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U

V

W

X

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Z

Can you work out the value of each minibeast?

Can you work out how each picture is linked to a hedgehog?

7 ILLUSTRATIONS: ALI NORTH

Get your hedgehog award T

he Wildlife Watch Hedgehog Award is the first of several awards you can earn, and is a simple and fun way of exploring nature. You need to complete eight wildlife challenges to gain your award, and you can choose which ones to do.

When you have completed eight challenges, let us know, and we will send your Hedgehog Award certificate. Telephone 01473 890089 or email info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Take action Make a hedgehog highway

to link your garden to you

r neighbours help hedgehogs survive the winter Create a wild corner with leaf and log piles Build a minibeast hotel Scatter wildflower seeds to make your garden buzz wit h insects Make a hedgehog house to

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To get inv next? olved wit h local hed gehog cam our paign, head to o ur websit e: suffolkw ildlifetru st.org

Colour in a hedgehog each time you complete a challenge.

y Watch & enjo

garden which animals are visiting your Make a sand footprint trap to see on your lawn or garden path Look out for hedgehog droppings and enjoy watching your visitors Make a hedgehog feeding station park for your garden, playground or Start a nature diary or scrapbook ibeasts you find Make a pooter and draw the min ogs! in your garden – it could be hedgeh Write a poem about the wildlife vity near you – they’re listed in the Go to a Suffolk Wildlife Trust acti fetrust.org What’s On section of suffolkwildli

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Record Identify & photograph or draw 5 minibeasts that hedgehogs feast on. Head to our website to submit your sightings on iRecord.

Identify and photograph or draw 5 wildflowers

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Take part in the Suffolk Wildlife Trust iSpy hedgehog survey

Make a poster for your school or club to tell others how to help and record hedgehogs (or other wildlife)

Hedgehogs need leaves to make their nests. Identify and collect 5 fallen leaves to draw or take rubbings.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House Ashbocking, Ipswich IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org Registered charity no 262777

suffolkwildlifetrust.org