Environmental columnist Martin Cooper talks about his visit to a local wildlife charity.

Hartford Hedgehog Rescue, based in Alconbury, helps ill and injured hedgehogs across the county, with the aim of returning them to the wild.

Cambs Times: Martin Cooper with one of the hedgehog patients.Martin Cooper with one of the hedgehog patients. (Image: MARTIN COOPER)

I was surprised to learn that main reasons for they stay of the 13 patients was lungworm and fluke – diseases both caused by hedgehogs eating slugs – which are not good for them.

So why do hedgehogs eat slugs when they make them so poorly?

Simply because there isn’t enough food that is good for them out there.

According to the Wildlife Trust, intensive farming has led to a 50 per cent decline in hedgerows in rural Britain since 1945, along with larger field sizes, increased pesticide use and limited areas of scrub, decaying wood or nectar rich planting.

Habitat loss, land use change and a lack of insects for food – linked to use of pesticides and slug pellets in gardening - is having a significant impact, not only on hedgehogs.

A review of 58 British mammal populations over 20 years found species such as water voles and common and pygmy shrews declined by up to 66 per cent over the past 20 years.

Pesticides are widely used on farms, in horticulture, in domestic gardens and household products, and to manage parks, housing estates, sports grounds, golf courses, pavements and roadsides.

We need to support farmers to fundamentally change how they farm, removing the need to pesticides as standard farming practice and encouraging agroecology - where farmers aim to work with nature to create a more balanced system.

Choosing organic food where we can is one of the main ways we can support farmers to make the change to healthy farming practices that are not only good for us, but for wildlife, including hedgehogs, too.