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University awarded Gold Hedgehog Friendly Campus status

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Biodiversity
Highlights 2022-2023
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Student Sustainability Architects
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The University has achieved Gold Hedgehog Friendly Campus status, thanks to collaborative efforts to improve and protect hedgehog habitats across our campus.  

Hedgehog Friendly Campus is a national programme funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society to raise awareness of hedgehogs in urban settings and offers practical steps, training and support for universities to improve their habitats.  

Banner has a cartoon image of a hedgehog and the words 'Hedgehog Friendly Campus, Gold Award 2022/23'

The Sustainability Service collaborates with the Grounds & Gardens team, Residential Services, Student Sustainability Architects, volunteers and external contractors as well as working closely with Hedgehog Friendly Campus to ensure that our campus provides a safe place for hedgehogs.  

Alongside work to protect habitats, footprint tunnels were set up at locations across campus and residences. These identify where hedgehogs are active, monitor their numbers and help us better protect their environment.  

Mike Howroyd, Sustainability Projects Officer leading on Biodiversity at the University, said: 

Achieving the gold standard of the Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme is a great celebration of the collective knowledge of the teams involved in the project and is a small but vital step in supporting our wider biodiversity programmes across the University.

In 2020, hedgehogs were added to the UK Red List due to their vulnerability to extinction. Hedgehogs are important to our ecosystem as they help control insect populations and keep gardens healthy. The decline of hedgehogs in the UK is largely due to habitat loss caused by human activity. 

Photograph of a hedgehog tunnel set up in green space on the University campus as part of the Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme

If you would like to learn more about our work to protect hedgehogs, or even get involved in the monitoring work, send an email to biodiversity@leeds.ac.uk.  

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We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity.

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.