Over the next couple of weeks, people will start planning their bonfire night activities and collecting materials for bonfires. However, as the clocks go back and the weather turns cold, wet, dark and windy, it’s the that hedgehogs start looking for places to hibernate and, to our little prickly friends, an unlit bonfire packed with cardboard, wood and newspaper s equivalent to a five-star hotel!

The wildlife charity is advising people to help protect hedgehogs by following a few guidelines when building their bonfire:

• Build the bonfire as close to the night as possible so there is less chance of a hedgehog moving in.
• Make the pile of material next to the bonfire site and re-build the stack before lighting it.
• Search the bonfire for hibernating creatures using a torch and rake before starting the fire. Allow time for them to shuffle away as they have poor eyesight and, if threatened with danger, will raise their spines and roll up into a tight ball, which may cause delays.
• Move any hedgehogs found to a ready-made hedgehog box somewhere dry, safe, and away from the fire.
• Before Bonfire Night, make an alternative home by raking up grass cuttings or autumn leaves into a pile a safe distance from the pile; hopefully sleepy ‘hogs will choose to sleep there instead of in the unlit bonfire.

Alice McCourt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Conservation Officer says: “To a hedgehog looking for a place to sleep, an unlit bonfire is a dream come true. We are urging people to give inspecting their bonfires top priority before lighting them. It only takes a minute to do but can save hundreds of hedgehogs from an unnecessary and painful death or injury. So come on everybody remember, remember hedgehogs this November!”