tunnels created between gardens in Caen to protect hedgehogs
While the species is endangered according to several studies, initiatives are multiplying to save hedgehogs, including the creation of tunnels between gardens.
Pesticides, urbanization, poaching, motorists… Hedgehogs are bearing the brunt of changes in our society. Even if few studies exist in France, Great Britain, where a third of hedgehogs have disappeared in twenty years, has placed the small animal in 2020 on the red list of endangered species.
Initiatives by associations or individuals then flourish in France. For example, a petition addressed to the Élysée has collected nearly 265,000 signatures. In particular, it calls for the creation of an “Ecosystem Hérisson” status to allow the development of “many networks of volunteer citizens”.
Tunnels between the gardens
It is on this community aspect that the Norman Agency for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (ANBDD) was developed. the “Piqu’Caen” project to “recreate passages between private and public properties”.
Small tunnels installed with the agreement of the owners could therefore save the lives of many lives by preventing them from using the roads.
The project is financially supported by the town hall of Caen. “It’s inexpensive, easy to implement. We can concretely improve the habitat of hedgehogs”, declared on BFMTV Julie Calberg-Ellen, assistant for the ecological transition at the town hall of Caen.
2021, the program has made it possible to create around sixty protected passages, according to the site news.fr.