Hedgehogs are decreasing in Sweden - Gotland tops the reporting during Hedgehog Week

During Hedgehog Week, which took place between 11 and 16 August, the public was invited to report hedgehog sightings to WWF. The initiative aims to collect data on the declining hedgehog population in Sweden, a phenomenon that has also been observed in many neighboring European countries.

Jessica Ångström, hedgehog expert at WWF, points out the large body of knowledge surrounding the hedgehog's decline: "We know very little about the hedgehog, there is little research and we have a rather poor knowledge base to understand why it is declining."

The result from the week shows that a total of 50,774 observations were reported, with Gotland topping the list with 3,189 hedgehogs. In Östergötland, Vadstena and Ödeshög ended up high in the ranking when the number of reports was related to the municipalities' population.

WWF views the great commitment positively and hopes that the data can be used for future research and inspire more actors, such as municipalities and garden owners, to get involved in the protection of hedgehogs.

"We hope that this will arouse interest from various research initiatives about why the hedgehogs are declining. Then we hope that more actors will get involved," says Jessica Ångström.

See the full list of hedgehog sightings below the article.