Why Tagging Hedgehogs Is Dangerous to Them

Small and spiny, sociable, and surprisingly speedy, hedgehogs are fascinating animals.

Sadly, their declining numbers and nocturnal nature mean some well-meaning humans go a little overboard when they see one. While it’s natural for wildlife enthusiasts to want to help hedgehogs, the trend of tagging hedgehogs by gluing plastic tubing to the animals’ spines is harmful and can even kill them.

If you see a hedgehog who has been tagged, contact your local wildlife rescue and or Hedgehog Cabin.

Hedgehog Tagging is Vanity, Not Conservation

Tags result from well-meaning hobbyist “rescuers” letting others know they have interacted with the animal, but they serve no good purpose. The plastic does NOT collect data, monitor movements, or help in any way.

Having items glued to their sensitive and essential spines causes hedgehogs great stress. Tagged animals aren’t tracked, often only seen again when a good Samaritan spots them and takes them to a rescue for urgent, lifesaving care.

Putting your stamp of ownership on a wild animal, as if they were a piece of luggage, is cruel and dangerous.

Tagging Kills

Hedgehogs lack a flight-or-fight reflex, making their only defence their coat of spines, which they keep in pristine condition via regular shaking and grooming. When not in use, hedgehog spines lay flat and perfectly aligned, making them harmless and comfortable when the hedgehog is at rest.

When they feel threatened, hedgehogs’ spines stand erect and crisscross to form an extremely effective formidable barrier. The plastic tubes taggers use impede this smooth, instantaneous defensive action, making them vulnerable.

Hedgehogs can suffer acute organ failure when stressed, from which they can take days to die, or experience such extreme immune system suppression from stress that they succumb to what might typically be a mild illness.  In 2016, a hedgehog— who was found dehydrated, underweight, and with mange, colitis, broken toes, and intestinal fluke— died when 26 tags and a radio tracker were glued to his spines.

Hedgehogs Need Our Help

Hedgehogs are protected in the UK and listed on the IUCN Red List for British Mammals as “vulnerable to extinction”. Habitat loss to animal agriculture, road traffic, chemicals, and cattle grids all affect hedgehog numbers, which have declined 30% in the past decade.

Be a Hero for Hedgehogs!

Aside from never tagging a hedgehog, you can help hedgehogs in other ways:

• Check leaf and log piles for hiding hedgehogs, especially if you plan to build a bonfire. Many hedgehogs die when their nests are disturbed.
• Know before you mow! Many hedgehogs fall victim to mower blades. It takes just a moment to ensure your grass isn’t hiding any hedgehogs, but it saves lives.
• Create ‘Hedgehog Highways’ by cutting holes in fences between neighbouring homes (if the yard is free from dogs and water features) to allow hedgehogs to move about without walking on the road.
• Go vegan! Animal agriculture swallows up land and resources and contributes to climate change, all of which harms wildlife. Order your free Vegan Starter Kit today and start helping more animals than you think!