THIS winter is expected to be one of the busiest yet for wildlife agencies ensuring underweight rescue hedgehogs survive through to spring.

The rapidly declining UK hedgehog population, which is down to less than one million from more than 30 million in the 1950s, makes the safe hibernation of every animal more important than ever.

Wildlife expert Graham Cornick, (pictured) well known for his talks to schools, issued an appeal to Surrey and East Hampshire residents to bring any hedgehogs at risk to his Hydestile Resident Animals centre to receive the TLC needed to survive the winter.

“I have received seven underweight hedgehogs in less than 24 hours, four of which are from the Haslemere area,” Graham said. “We are now caring for 50 at risk.

“The numbers are going down so much nationally and the situation has got worse in the last three to four years.

“Please bring them in so we can look after them and release them back into the wild next year when the frosts are over. These little hedgehogs go into hibernation but they don’t have enough body fat to see them through hibernation.

“By the end of December all their reserves are used up, so they wake up too soon and perish.”

To contact Hydestile Resident Animals about rescue hedgehogs call (01483) 860313.