Yesterday it was announced that the hedgehog, a familiar face to our gardens here in Edinburgh and the Lothians has been officially classified as vulnerable to extinction.
The humble British hedgehog was included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List for British Mammals.
The conservation report, which was conducted by the Mammal Society, explains that hedgehogs could be at risk of dying out completely if we don't take drastic action to prevent their numbers dropping.
However, this heartbreaking news has come as no surprise to wildlife conservationists.
Dangers to our spiny pals include litter, pesticides, slug pellets, rat traps and more.
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society also launched a campaign called Hedgehog Street, which encourages people to connect gardens with 13cm square holes for hogs as "ensuring hedgehogs can pass freely through your garden is the most important thing you can do to help them".
According to the BHPS, hedgehogs travel around one mile every night through our parks and gardens in their quest to find enough food and a mate. If you have an enclosed garden you might be getting in the way of their plans - you can learn how to make one here.
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The BHPS is calling on Government, in the light of this new internationally recognised classification, to increase the protection offered to the hedgehog under the Wildlife and Countryside Act by moving it to schedule 5, allowing the level of protection appropriate for such a keystone species in decline.
