| 1 | Hedgehog Conservation Motion made , and Question proposed , That this House do now adjourn . |
| 2 | -- ( Kris Hopkins . ) |
| 3 | 19:12:00 Oliver Colvile ( Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport ) ( Con ) |
| 4 | Thank_you , Madam Deputy Speaker , for giving me an Adjournment debate on hedgehog habitats and the need to protect the species . |
| 5 | Before I go any further , I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members ' Financial Interests . |
| 6 | I still retain an interest in a small public relations company that gives advice to developers , although I am not sure they will want to talk to me after this . |
| 7 | I thank the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People 's Trust for Endangered Species , and especially Henry Johnson , who has spoken to me about the importance of hedgehog conservation . |
| 8 | An article in The Guardian in July 2013 pointed out that hedgehogs are prickly in character , have a voracious appetite and a passion for gardens , and have a noisy sex life . |
| 9 | I leave it to you , Madam Deputy Speaker , to decide which of those traits I share . |
| 10 | In a BBC wildlife poll , hedgehogs were chosen as the best natural emblem for the British nation , beating the charismatic badger and the sturdy oak . |
| 11 | The victory for the ultimate underdog came about with 42 % and more than 9,000 votes cast for the hedgehog . |
| 12 | I know what it is like to be an underdog , because that is how I felt in the run_-_up to the last general election , when I placed a bet on myself with Paddy Power at 4:1 against . |
| 13 | In short , the British people have taken hedgehogs to their hearts . |
| 14 | Even_though we are a nation of animal lovers and have played a key role in the emergence of the modern conservation movement in the western world , Britain does not have a designated national species , unlike many other countries , including Russia , Australia and South Africa . |
| 15 | That is why I am calling on my hon. Friend the Minister to hold a national campaign to identify which animal should be our designated national species . |
| 16 | Needless_to_say , I will be launching a petition after this debate to name the hedgehog as our designated national species . |
| 17 | Jim Shannon ( Strangford ) ( DUP ) |
| 18 | I was interested to hear the hon. Gentleman set the scene for us , but there are more than 100 priority species across the UK , many of which reside within my constituency . Does he agree we need a strategy for all those species , including the hedgehog ? |
| 19 | Oliver Colvile |
| 20 | Yes , I am happy to agree , but I am talking about , and campaigning for , the hedgehog . |
| 21 | Perhaps the BBC might like to run a competition similar to one to find the greatest Briton , with a series of people arguing the case for their preferred animal over a series of weeks . |
| 22 | I would be willing to do the job on behalf of the hedgehog . |
| 23 | Martin John Docherty ( West Dunbartonshire ) ( SNP ) |
| 24 | Does the hon. Gentleman agree that hedgehogs are a devolved issue to be decided on by the Scottish Government ? |
| 25 | Oliver Colvile |
| 26 | I am told that in the western isles , there are no hedgehogs at_all . |
| 27 | My relationship with the hedgehog goes back to my own childhood in suburban Woking , when I was read by my actress mother Beatrix Potter 's “ The Tale of Mrs Tiggy_-_Winkle ” -- hon. Members will not be surprised to learn that this is not the only Mrs T who has been important in my life . |
| 28 | I was therefore deeply shocked to discover that in the last 10 years , hedgehog numbers have declined by about one_third nationally . |
| 29 | According_to the House of Commons Library , the principal reason for this prickly animal 's decline is the loss of habitats . |
| 30 | Likely factors in the hedgehog 's demise are the loss of permanent grasslands , larger field sizes , the use of pesticides and herbicides and a reduction in hedgerow quality . |
| 31 | I understand that badgers are a natural predator of hedgehogs and that consequently they avoid sites where badgers are present . |
| 32 | Gavin Williamson ( South Staffordshire ) ( Con ) |
| 33 | Does my hon. Friend recognise the importance of using our gardens as a vital habitat for hedgehogs ? |
| 34 | I recently built a hedgehog house in my garden . Sadly , as yet I have no residents in it , but I hope it will encourage diversity and a growth in hedgehog numbers in South Staffordshire . |
| 35 | Oliver Colvile |
| 36 | I will be making a similar point in a moment . |
| 37 | Hedgehogs seem to thrive in urban and suburban areas , but the move to tidy , sterile gardens -- I am sure the garden of my right hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire ( Gavin Williamson ) is not sterile -- has also contributed to their demise . |
| 38 | However , these suburban habitats are broken up by fences and roads , pushing hedgehogs into unsuitably small areas . |
| 39 | Rebecca Pow ( Taunton Deane ) ( Con ) |
| 40 | Another fascinating fact about hedgehogs , which my hon. Friend might be aware of , is that they run up to 1.2 km a night , but they have to find a mate . Thinking about wildlife gardening , I wonder if he might make a hole in his garden fence so_that the hedgehogs can run through to find a mate ? |
| 41 | This is essential . |
| 42 | Oliver Colvile |
| 43 | My hon. Friend has been reading my speech or has had prior notice of it . |
| 44 | Hedgehogs need to move a surprising distance to search for food , mates and nesting sites , so we need to make it easier for them to move between gardens , perhaps by making holes in fences . |
| 45 | During a visit to Plymouth 's hedgehog rehabilitation and care centre this autumn , in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth Moor View , ( Johnny Mercer ) , I learned that the way to tackle this problem is to stop habitat loss . |
| 46 | I was also rather surprised to learn that we should not leave milk and bread out for hedgehogs . Additionally , slug pellets are a great danger that can be fatally harmful to them . |
| 47 | Julian Knight ( Solihull ) ( Con ) |
| 48 | I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate . Does he agree that the advent of specific hedgehog conservation areas , such_as the one in Elmdon in my Solihull constituency , can play a major part in arresting the alarming decline in the numbers of the great British hedgehog ? |
| 49 | Oliver Colvile |
| 50 | I am delighted to hear about the area in my hon. Friend 's constituency , and I think it important to continue with the theme of ensuring how we can look after the hedgehog . |
| 51 | I was also told that elastic bands , which postmen discard when delivering letters , are also detrimental to hedgehog survivals . |
| 52 | There is no robust evidence on this point , but it is one of many concerns that have been raised with me about the pitfalls that hedgehogs must dodge . |
| 53 | Not only do we need hedgehog_-_friendly gardens , but I also want my hon. Friends and the Government to give local authorities advice on ensuring that hedgehogs do not get caught up in bonfires . |
| 54 | Last week , we celebrated bonfire night and I raised my concerns about hedgehogs making nests in the bonfires before they were set alight . |
| 55 | One of my hon. Friends suggested that this might be a Catholic plot to ensure that attention was taken away from Guy Fawkes -- but I rather dismissed that . |
| 56 | Although it is not thought that badgers are the principal culprit in the demise of hedgehogs , they can not be totally blame free . |
| 57 | In a major DEFRA study , which assessed the ecological consequences of badger removal during the randomised badger culling trial lasting from 1998 to 2006 , it was found that removing badgers from a habitat had a number of consequences for other species . |
| 58 | The report said that hedgehogs rarely encountered badgers in rural sites , but were found relatively frequently in amenity areas . |
| 59 | Population density increased by over 100 % over the course of the randomised badger culling trial in amenity sites in proactive cull areas , while declining slightly in no_-_cull control sites . |
| 60 | No similar increases were detected in rural sites . |
| 61 | The report also found that there is strong evidence that badger predation restricts hedgehog populations and that amenity areas in villages act as a spatial refuge for hedgehogs . |
| 62 | In 2011 , a further report on the state of British hedgehogs concluded that , while badgers are a natural predator of hedgehogs , where there are good foraging opportunities for worms and beetles , badgers and hedgehogs can coexist . |
| 63 | However , when there is no safe refuge , and badgers and hedgehogs compete for these scarce resources , hedgehogs may be in serious trouble . |
| 64 | A more recent study in 2014 found that in areas of preferred habitat , counts did not change where there was no badger culling . |
| 65 | An analysis of the original badger culling experiments , published in April 2014 , shows that while at some sites hedgehog numbers did increase , following a reduction in the number of badgers , it was thought that some of the sample sizes might have been too small . |
| 66 | I must point out that there have been widespread calls for more research into the effects of the badger , and I welcome this . |
| 67 | As I explained earlier , badgers are not the sole cause of the decline in the hedgehog population , but I believe that there is a real danger that if more research is not put into the badger cull , hedgehog numbers will continue to decline . |
| 68 | I hope that the Minister will take note of that . |
| 69 | There is a pressing need to support hedgehogs in urban areas . |
| 70 | It is very important to focus on the barriers created by walls and impermeable garden fences and the consequent fragmentation of the hedgehog population . |
| 71 | The House may like to know that I am pressing my fellow neighbours at the Royal Naval hospital in Plymouth to ensure that we can create a hedgehog_-_friendly community and increase the number of hedgehogs in this part of my inner_-_city constituency . |
| 72 | Dr Lisa Cameron ( East Kilbride , Strathaven and Lesmahagow ) ( SNP ) |
| 73 | I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate . |
| 74 | I am just reading on the British Hedgehog Preservation Society site that Saturday 21 November is hedgehog day , so I wish to congratulate the hon. Gentleman on one of the timeliest debates on this issue . |
| 75 | Oliver Colvile |
| 76 | Everybody else seems to have had notice of my speech before I ended up making it . |
| 77 | The progressive loss of suitable feeding areas through intensive gardening or inappropriate management of amenity grasslands are also major issues about which we can take action . |
| 78 | When new garden fences are installed there are “ hedgehog_-_friendly ” options , such_as a small hole so_that hedgehogs do not become trapped in gardens , and I urge people to consider those in future . |
| 79 | More than 36,500 hedgehog champions are campaigning to create hedgehog_-_friendly neighbourhoods . |
| 80 | I have now volunteered to be one , and I am the 150th hedgehog champion from Plymouth to sign up to this excellent scheme . |
| 81 | I am sure , Madam Deputy Speaker , that you will want to know what you can do . |
| 82 | Like me , you can sign up to be a hedgehog champion on the “ Hedgehog Street ” ' website , where you can report sightings of hedgehogs on the “ big hedgehog map ” . Although it is not a scientific survey , it is an excellent way in which to engage the public , and I challenge as many right hon. and hon. Members as possible to sign up to the cause . |
| 83 | I am delighted to report that Saturday 21 November is the day of the hedgehog , and that hundreds of people are expected to descend on the International Centre , in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Telford ( Lucy Allan ) . |
| 84 | I myself will be attempting to set up an all_-_party parliamentary group for hedgehogs , so_that we can advance the cause of those prickly characters . |
| 85 | If any Members are interested , I should be delighted if they contacted me on oliver.colvile.mp<commat>parliament.uk . |
| 86 | On the same day , the next report reviewing the four main surveys covering hedgehogs in rural and urban areas will be released . |
| 87 | It must be remembered that hedgehog numbers are a good indicator of the state of the natural environment , which is why these creatures are so important to the United Kingdom 's ecology . |
| 88 | I think that there is more to be done , and I have therefore suggested to the Chairman of the Environment , Food and Rural Affairs Committee , my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton ( Neil Parish ) , that it should hold an inquiry into how we can save hedgehogs . |
| 89 | I hope that I have set out the case for hedgehogs clearly , Madam Deputy Speaker , and that you too will become a hedgehog supporter . |
| 90 | Now is the time to increase the public 's awareness of the plight of these plucky characters . |
| 91 | I trust that the aforementioned Mrs T would be delighted that someone is taking up this important cause . |
| 92 | Madam Deputy Speaker ( Mrs Eleanor Laing ) |
| 93 | I think I had better confirm , lest my customary silence be taken as negative , that I will of course do so . |
| 94 | 19:27:00 The Parliamentary Under_-_Secretary of State for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Rory Stewart ) |
| 95 | Multa novit vulpes , verum echinus unum magnum , Madam Deputy Speaker . |
| 96 | Tom Tugendhat ( Tonbridge and Malling ) ( Con ) |
| 97 | In every happy home is a hedgehog , as the Pashtuns would say . |
| 98 | I urge my hon. Friend to encourage our Pashtun community in this country to follow that example . |
| 99 | Rory Stewart |
| 100 | I am very grateful for that Pushtun intervention , but my hon. Friend refers , of course , to the Asian variety of the hedgehog rather than the western hedgehog , which is the subject of our discussion today . |
| 101 | The fox knows many things , but the hedgehog knows one big thing . |
| 102 | I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport ( Oliver Colvile ) . |
| 103 | I believe that this is the first time that Parliament has discussed hedgehogs since 1566 , when the subject was famously raised in relation to the attribution of a bounty of tuppence for the collection of the hedgehog throughout the United Kingdom . |
| 104 | The hedgehog has undergone an extraordinary evolution . |
| 105 | The year 1566 seems very recent , but the hedgehog was around before then . It was around before this Parliament . The hedgehog , and its ancestor , narrowly missed being crushed under the foot of Tyrannosaurus rex . The hedgehog was around long before the human species : it existed 56 million years ago . It tells us a great deal about British civilisation that my hon. Friend has raised the subject , because the hedgehog is a magical creature . It is a creature that appears on cylinder seals in Sumeria , bent backwards on the prows of Egyptian ships . The hedgehog has of course a famous medicinal quality taken by the Romany people for baldness and it represents a symbol of the resurrection found throughout Christian Europe . |
| 106 | This strange animal was known , of course , in Scotland , Wales and Ireland originally in Gaelic as that demonic creature , that horrid creature , and is the hedgehog celebrated by Shakespeare : “ Thorny hedgehogs , be not seen ... Come not near our faerie queen ” , and famously of course in “ Richard III ” there is that great moment when Gloucester is referred to as a hedgehog . |
| 107 | It tells us something about Britain today ; it represents a strange decline in British civilisation from a notion of this magical , mystical , terrifying creature to where it is today , and I refer of course to my own constituent , the famous cleanliness representative of Penrith and The Border , Mrs Tiggy_-_Winkle . |
| 108 | I want to be serious for a moment . |
| 109 | The hedgehog is of course an important environmental indicator , with its habitat , its ability to occupy 30 hectares of land , and its particular relationship to the hibernaculum , by which I mean the hedgehog 's ability , almost uniquely among animals in the United Kingdom , to go into a state of genuine hibernation . Its heartbeat goes from 240 a minute to only two a minute for six months a year . It has a particular diet -- a focus on grubs and beetles . |
| 110 | The street hedgehog initiative , which my hon. Friend has brought forward , reminds us that , by cutting holes in the bottom of our hedges , we can create again an opportunity for hedgehogs to move . |
| 111 | The hedgehog provides a bigger lesson for us in our environment -- first , a lesson in scientific humility . |
| 112 | The hedgehog has of course been studied for over 2,000 years . |
| 113 | The first scientific reference to the hedgehog is in Aristotle ; he is picked up again by Isidore of Seville in the 8th century and again by Buffon in the 18th century , and these are reminders of the ways in which we get hedgehogs wrong . Aristotle points out that the hedgehog carries apples on his spine into his nest . Isidore of Seville argues that the hedgehog travels with grapes embedded on his spine . Buffon believes these things might have been food for the winter , but as we know today the hedgehog , hibernating as he does , is not a creature that needs to take food into his nest for the winter . |
| 114 | Again , our belief in Britain that the five teeth of the hedgehog represent the reaction of the sinful man to God -- the five excuses that the sinful man makes to God -- is subverted by our understanding that the hedgehog does not have five teeth . |
| 115 | Finally , the legislation introduced in this House , to my great despair , in 1566 which led to the bounty of a tuppence on a hedgehog was based on a misunderstanding : the idea that the hedgehog fed on the teats of a recumbent cow in_order to feed itself on milk . This led to the death of between of # half a million and 2 million hedgehogs between 1566 and 1800 , a subject John Clare takes forward in a poem of 1805 and which led my own Department , the Ministry of Agriculture , in 1908 to issue a formal notice to farmers encouraging them not to believe that hedgehogs take milk from the teats of a recumbent cow , because of course the hedgehog 's mouth is too small to be able to perform this function . |
| 116 | But before we mock our ancestors , we must understand this is a lesson for us . |
| 117 | The scientific mistakes we made in the past about the hedgehog are mistakes that we , too , may be mocked for in the future . |
| 118 | We barely understand this extraordinary creature . |
| 119 | We barely understand for_example its habit of self_-_anointing ; we will see a hedgehog produce an enormous amount of saliva and throw it over its back . We do not understand why it does that . We do not really understand its habit of aestivation , which_is_to_say the hedgehog which my hon. Friend referred to -- the Pushto version of the hedgehog -- hibernates in the summer as_well_as the winter . |
| 120 | We do not understand that concept of aestivation . |
| 121 | For those of us interested in environmental management , the hedgehog also represents the important subject of conflict in habitats . |
| 122 | The habitat that suits the hedgehog is liminal land : it is edge land , hedgerows and dry land . |
| 123 | The hedgehog is not an animal that flourishes in many of our nature reserves . It does not do well in peatland or in dense , heavy native woodland . |
| 124 | The things that prey on the hedgehog are sometimes things that we treasure . |
| 125 | My hon. Friend mentioned badgers . |
| 126 | Rebecca Pow |
| 127 | Does the Minister agree that the successful survival of our hedgehog population is a direct reflection of how healthy and sustainable our environment is ? |
| 128 | It is important that we should look after the environment , because the knock_-_on effect of that will be that our hedgehog population will be looked after . |
| 129 | Rory Stewart |
| 130 | That is an important point . |
| 131 | The hedgehog is a generalist species , and traditionally we have not paid much attention to such species . |
| 132 | We have been very good at focusing on specialist species , such_as the redshank , which requires a particular kind of wet habitat . |
| 133 | The hedgehog is a more challenging species for us to take on board . As I was saying , the hedgehog is a good indicator for hedgerow habitat , although it is not much use for peatland or wetland . |
| 134 | The hedgehog raises some important environmental questions . |
| 135 | One is the question of conflict with the badger . |
| 136 | Another is the question of the hedgehog in the western isles , which relates to the issue of the hedgehog 's potential predation on the eggs of the Arctic tern . |
| 137 | Patrick Grady ( Glasgow North ) ( SNP ) |
| 138 | On the point about the hedgehog in the western isles , we have established that hedgehogs are a devolved matter . |
| 139 | My hon. Friend the Member for Na h_-_Eileanan an Iar ( Mr MacNeil ) is not in the Chamber at the moment . |
| 140 | Scottish Natural Heritage is doing careful work to humanely remove hedgehogs from the Hebrides , and it would be interesting to hear how the UK Government intend to support that work . |
| 141 | Rory Stewart |
| 142 | This is an important reminder that things that matter enormously to our civilisation , our society and our hearts -- such_as the hedgehog -- have to be in the right place . |
| 143 | In New Zealand , hedgehogs are considered an extremely dangerous invasive species that has to be removed for the same reasons that people in Scotland are having to think about controlling them there . |
| 144 | It does not matter whether we are talking about badgers , hedgehogs or Arctic terns -- it is a question of what place they should occupy . |
| 145 | Finally -- and , I think , more positively -- what the hedgehog really represents for us is an incredible symbol of citizen science . |
| 146 | The energy that my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport has brought to the debate is a great example of British , or perhaps English , eccentricity , and it is on the basis of English eccentricity that our habitat has been preserved . |
| 147 | Gilbert White , the great 18th century naturalist , was himself an immense eccentric . |
| 148 | It has been preserved thanks_to eccentrics such_as my hon. Friend and , perhaps most famously of all , Hugh Warwick , the great inspiration behind the British Hedgehog Preservation Society . He has written no fewer than three books on the hedgehog , and he talks very movingly about staring into the eyes of a hedgehog and getting a sense of its wildness from its gaze . |
| 149 | These enthusiasts connect the public to nature , sustain our 25 - year environment programme and contribute enormously to our scientific understanding of these animals . |
| 150 | This is true in relation to bees , to beavers and in particular to Hugh Warwick 's work on hedgehogs . |
| 151 | I am also pleased that the hon. Member for East Kilbride , Strathaven and Lesmahagow ( Dr Cameron ) mentioned national hedgehog day in an earlier intervention . |
| 152 | Ultimately , we need to understand that the hedgehog is a very prickly issue . |
| 153 | The reason for that is that my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport has raised the question of adopting the hedgehog as our national symbol . |
| 154 | Some hon. Members will remember that the hedgehog was used by Saatchi <amp> Saatchi in an advertising campaign for the Conservative party in 1992 general election . |
| 155 | We should therefore pay tribute to the hedgehog 's direct contribution to our election victory in that year . |
| 156 | But I would like to challenge my hon. Friend 's assertion that the hedgehog should become our national symbol . |
| 157 | I ask you , Madam Deputy Speaker , as I ask those on both sides of this House , because this question concerns not only one party , but all of us : do we want to have as our national symbol an animal which when confronted with danger rolls over into a little ball and puts its spikes up ? |
| 158 | Do we want to have as our national symbol an animal that sleeps for six months of the year ? |
| 159 | Or would we rather return to the animal that is already our national symbol ? |
| 160 | I refer , of course , to the lion , which is majestic , courageous and proud . |
| 161 | If I may finish with a little testimony to my hon. Friend and to those innocent creatures which are hedgehogs , perhaps I can reach back to them not as a symbol for our nation but as a symbol of innocence to Thomas Hardy . He says : “ When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn , One may say , ‘ He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm , But he could do little for them ; and now he is gone . ’ If , when hearing that I have been stilled at_last , they stand at the door , Watching the full_-_starred heavens that winter sees , Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more , ‘ He was one who had an eye for such mysteries ' ? |
| 162 | Madam Deputy Speaker ( Mrs Eleanor Laing ) |
| 163 | I paused because I wanted to encourage some more positive noises for the Minister , who has just made one of the best speeches I have ever heard in this House . |
| 164 | Question put and agreed to . |
| 165 | 19:41:00 House adjourned . |