Wildlife survey shows regular hedgehogs

A total of 1804 people in West Sussex took part in this year’s summer wildlife survey counting the birds and mammals in their gardens.

As well as hedgehogs, participants were also asked to report moles and roe deer for the first time this year. In West Sussex five and a half percent of participants recorded seeing moles and over four and a half percent sighted roe deer in their gardens.

Sophie McCallum, RSPB South East media officer, said: “This is only the second year of our summer survey so it’s great that so many people in West Sussex took part. They are helping us to collect useful information about our garden wildlife.

“For many species the only way of counting them is to ask people to take part in a garden survey like this and some of the results have been quite surprising. Lots of people see hedgehogs, moles and deer in their gardens which you may only expect to see in the wider countryside. Such a wide variety of wildlife highlights the important of wildlife friendly gardening “