Bath Spa receives Hedgehog Silver Accreditation

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Bath Spa University receives Silver Accreditation from British Hedgehog Preservation Society

We’re delighted to announce that Bath Spa has achieved Silver Accreditation for being a Hedgehog Friendly Campus. Achieving a silver award means a great deal to our community as it reflects our growing commitment to becoming a more sustainable and environmentally friendly campus.

The Hedgehog Friendly Campus Team at Bath Spa University are continuing their work to raise awareness of the decline of hedgehogs and the challenges they face, as well as helping to create safe spaces on campus for them to thrive.

Hedgehogs are listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and their numbers have declined by up to 50% since 2000. This significant decline is due to the multiple challenges they are facing today: litter, roads, disconnected habitats, environmental poisons and a lack of access to water and food.

Our campuses cover large areas of suitable hedgehog habitat and the choices that staff and students make within those habitats can have a large impact on local wildlife. The Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative is a national campaign for universities who want to protect these much loved native animals. Our mission is to create environments within our campuses where hedgehogs can thrive.

The team has improved sustainability through tasks such as:

• Fundraising
• Completing surveys
• Litter picking
• Installing hedgehog houses and hedgehog crossings.

The Hedgehog Friendly Campus team at Bath Spa will continue their efforts and start to work towards the Gold Accreditation. This will involve conducting more hedgehog surveys, encouraging hedgehog friendly changes on campus via policy and practice, and communicating with the wider community.

For more information you can follow the team on Instagram @hedgehogsbsu and Facebook @bsuhedgehogfriendlycampus, or email hedgehogs@bathspa.ac.uk.