A NANTWICH conservationist is calling on locals to make their garden’s more amenable to one of Britain’s best loved – but most endangered – wild animals.

Jack Riggall has been busy helping a national campaign reverse the plight of the humble hedgehog, whose population decline rivals that of the tiger.

The 25-year-old has signed up to become a Hedgehog Champion for Nantwich, and has been monitoring numbers and improving habitat to help the nocturnal creatures thrive once more.

“Though it is a familiar neighbour to us all in the UK, it is becoming scarcer every day; it has in fact dropped from an estimated 36.5 million in the 1950’s to less than 1 million today. This decline rivals that of the endangered tiger,” explained Jack.

“However, we can make changes to our own habits that will encourage the hedgehog.

“One purpose of this national project is to encourage neighbours to look at their gardens and ensure hedgehogs can come and go between them. This opens up a wider territory for the food such as beetles, slugs and other creepy crawlies, which the hedgehog needs to eat each night.”

The Hedgehog Street national campaign is being jointly organised by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

To find out how you can help, email the Hedgehog Street officer at emily.thomas@ptes.org.

Jack will also be submitting hedgehog sightings to the appeal to get a good reflection of local numbers. He’s asking people to get in touch with any sightings – whether it’s alive or the unfortunate victim of a road kill, Jack can be reached at onthisrock@hotmail.co.uk