Wondering what we've been up to over the last year? Once we started to look through everything that we've done in 2021, it turns out - it's quite a lot. This little newsletter will give you some of the highlights.
A Silver Hedgehog Friendly Campus
Achievement of the year: Silver
We were thrilled to be awarded Silver in Spring 2021, after achieving Bronze in 2020.
You might wonder what this entails. A handy list of some of our hogfriendly actions can be found below:
- Partnerships - we worked with SU elected officers and Societies such as the UoL E.C.O Society
- Community - all of our hogfriendly events are open to everyone, and we've run several successful online and in person workshops on How to Help Hedgehogs and Hedgehog First Aid (watch this one back on Facebook)
- Hogitats - we built hedgehog habitats in the form of log piles, planted brambles and left piles of leaves in place across our campuses
- Monitoring - we helped monitor local hedgehog populations by organising mammal surveys at home locations during lockdown, as well as running a survey on the Brayford Campus with staff. Results were documented on the Big Hedgehog Map
- Policy - we amended our Biodiversity Policy to include hedgehogs and habitat provision
We have just submitted for the next level, Gold, and are keeping our fingers crossed for next year's result!
More "Hogitats" & signage
This year, not only did we build some more log piles and leave areas on campus to rewild, we also created some custom signage to highlight areas that our campus hogs had been spotted in and that had been left wild for wildlife.
Featuring bug hotels, logs from our Riseholme Campus + explanatory signs, the two additional "hogitats" on the Brayford Campus added this last term brings our total up to 6. Thank you to the UoL E.C.O Society for your help in this.
These hogitats are in addition to wildflower areas, and parts of our campus green spaces left to grow wild.
Monitoring our hedgehog populations
Our team have continued to monitor our local hedgehog population by running regular campus mammal surveys. We've also run our first community hedgehog surveys at the Lawns by Stokes. Whilst we didn't find any hedgehogs in our first surveys there, we are hoping to advise local stakeholders on how they can make this community green space more hedgehog friendly.
Summer Watch with Chris Packham
Our team were involved in #Summerwatch at the University of Lincoln with Chris Packham, running survey tunnel workshops - something our Hogfriendly team regularly offer training on.
We were successful in garnering a number of prints, particularly around the Delph Pond area. This is where we left areas to rewild, and also where we've seeded wildflowers in the Lincoln Medical School landscaping.
Members of the public partook in workshops on mammal surveys, pond dipping, owl pellet dissection and meeting the Brayford Honeybees.
You can watch Chris Packham and Alex Foxley-Johnson speak on the day below, talking all things hedgehogs and more!
Slow down for hedgehogs
One of our actions for Gold is to raise awareness of hedgehog crossing areas and to install signage where possible.
We are thrilled to have been able to install our first sign encouraging drivers to slow down for hedgehogs on our Riseholme Campus by a key entrance/exit road into the estate.
We'll be adding more of these signs to this campus and the Brayford in the very near future!
C.L.E.A.N up for Hedgehogs
Did you know that hedgehogs can walk up to 2km in a single night?
During Hedgehog Week in May 2021, we launched the first of our symbolic 2km litter picks for hedgehogs.
In total, our team has walked 16km and collected over 60 bags of rubbish - including our total to the Big Hog Friendly Litter Pick Challenge, which included Lincoln SU and the Lincoln Canoe Club.
Anyone who'd like to organise their own litter picks using our trusty UoL CLEAN Hub can find out more on our website:
Hedgehog Week May 2021
Not only was hedgehog week a time for launching our 2km litter picks for hedgehogs, this year our team:
- Ran a hogfriendly gardening session which included sowing wildflower seeds
- Organised a series of Twilight Wildlife Safaris for staff, students and members of the public
- Held an Open Meeting with the lovely BGU Hogfriendly team
30km for 30% - A Hedgehog Week Fundraiser
Hedgehog populations have declined around 50% in rural areas and 30% in urban areas since just the year 2000. For #hedgehogweek, a couple of members of our team decided to cycle 30km in a single bike ride from Lincoln City Centre to emphasize the 30% loss. We raised a whopping £350!
Bonuses of the bike ride: we saw a huge variety of wildlife including; lapwings, bats, otters and even baby foxes!
We've also had fun being interviewed by BBC Radio Lincolnshire, by local student newspapers, assisted in hedgehog rescues and advised in more. We're very proud to be a Hedgehog Friendly Campus and would recommend getting involved in this campaign to anyone.
If you'd like some tips on how you can get started on being hedgehog friendly, read our checklist below:
Finally, a big thank you to all of the people who have got involved in our campaign over the course of the last year, to the volunteers who have stuck it out on rainy litter picks or surveys, to our student ambassadors who have got involved with our events, and to our working group who work hard to ensure that this campaign is promoted within the university.