The University of Liverpool’s Hedgehog Friendly Campus team have gone from strength to strength over the last 12 months, achieving the scheme’s silver accreditation this year.
Hedgehog Friendly Campus is a national accreditation scheme, funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, which aims to make university campuses a safer place for wild hedgehogs. The scheme was founded at the University of Sheffield in September 2018, and launched as a national campaign in 2019, Projects are currently taking place in 80 universities nationwide.
While often considered to be one of the nations favourite mammals, hedgehogs are in grave need of help. This is reflected in the fact that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added hedgehogs to their Red List last year, highlighting the significant drop in numbers in the UK.
Photo credit: Jackson’s Animal Rescue
The University of Liverpool’s participation is led by Zoë Chapman, Business Manager at Ness Botanic Gardens and the project group comprises of more than 50 members, including staff and students from across all of our campuses. In achieving silver accreditation, we have amongst other activities, undertaken tracking surveys, gained a celebrity patron and developed a series of hedgehog themed information leaflets. All this material is available from the Ness Botanic Gardens website.
Zoë Chapman, Business Manager at Ness Botanic Gardens said “Thanks for the hard work and enthusiasm of the project group, we have achieved a great deal this year which has been borne out in our achieving the silver accreditation. Onwards to Gold in 2021/2022!”
Further Information:
If you would like to get involved, please contact the University of Liverpool’s Hedgehog Champion, Zoë Chapman by emailing: ZChapman@liverpool.ac.uk.