People urged to check for hedgehogs ahead of bonfire night in Teesside
There are concerns the small animals could be hurt this weekend
We are being urged to check for hedgehogs ahead of bonfire night across Teesside.
People will be preparing but there are concerns for the small animals who are out in the open.
Chris Firth, Chair of the Cleveland Hedgehog Preservation Society, said: "What looks like a bonfire to you and me might look like an ideal nest for a hedgehog. They often build their nests in the bottom of bonfires that people have been preparing over a length of time. The best thing you can do is move your bonfire, maybe if you prepare it from six-feet away from where you're actually going to hold your bonfire.
"The lucky hedgehogs would just be singed and they'd maybe get their prickles a little bit burnt. The prickles are actually modified hair so it burns like hair does which isn't very nice. They get their prickles burnt a little bit and hopefully minor damage to their skin but of course, the worst case scenario is that they get burnt to death.
"It's very important that people put clean water out for hedgehogs. A bowl of water out in the garden is brilliant. Please don't give them bread and milk as milk is poisonous to hedgehogs and bread just fills them up without doing them any good. The little cat biscuits that you would give your cat are absolutely brilliant. Hedgehogs love them and it's really good for them.
"One of the problems that hedgehogs have is moving around. We need things called hedgehog highways. Your average hedgehog needs 10 gardens to survive and if people are putting fences up without holes in, then that stops hedgehogs from moving around. They need just a little hole the size of a CD at the bottom of the fence so they can move between gardens."