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Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Hedgehogs are declining in the United Kingdom and are now absent from large areas of agriculture land. This commentary discusses the requirements of hedgehogs and links these to land management options that are currently used to benefit wildlife in agricultural areas. Using our knowl...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7552150/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32899181 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10091566 |
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author | Yarnell, Richard W. Pettett, Carly E. |
author_facet | Yarnell, Richard W. Pettett, Carly E. |
author_sort | Yarnell, Richard W. |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: Hedgehogs are declining in the United Kingdom and are now absent from large areas of agriculture land. This commentary discusses the requirements of hedgehogs and links these to land management options that are currently used to benefit wildlife in agricultural areas. Using our knowledge of hedgehog requirements for population persistence, we suggest which land management practices are likely to be of benefit to hedgehogs in the hope that land owners will adopt some of the suggestions to help maintain and expand existing hedgehog populations across agricultural landscapes of the United Kingdom. ABSTRACT: Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are traditionally thought of as being a rural dwelling species, associated with rural and agricultural landscapes across Europe. However, recent studies have highlighted that hedgehogs are more likely to be found in urban than rural habitats in the United Kingdom. Here, we review the status of rural hedgehog populations across the UK and evaluate the potential benefits of agri-environment schemes for hedgehog persistence, while highlighting a lack of empirical evidence that agri-environment options will benefit hedgehog populations. Our synthesis has implications for future conservation strategies for hedgehogs and insectivorous mammals living in agricultural landscapes, and calls for more empirical studies on agri-environment options and their potential benefits to hedgehogs. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7552150 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75521502020-10-16 Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom Yarnell, Richard W. Pettett, Carly E. Animals (Basel) Commentary SIMPLE SUMMARY: Hedgehogs are declining in the United Kingdom and are now absent from large areas of agriculture land. This commentary discusses the requirements of hedgehogs and links these to land management options that are currently used to benefit wildlife in agricultural areas. Using our knowledge of hedgehog requirements for population persistence, we suggest which land management practices are likely to be of benefit to hedgehogs in the hope that land owners will adopt some of the suggestions to help maintain and expand existing hedgehog populations across agricultural landscapes of the United Kingdom. ABSTRACT: Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are traditionally thought of as being a rural dwelling species, associated with rural and agricultural landscapes across Europe. However, recent studies have highlighted that hedgehogs are more likely to be found in urban than rural habitats in the United Kingdom. Here, we review the status of rural hedgehog populations across the UK and evaluate the potential benefits of agri-environment schemes for hedgehog persistence, while highlighting a lack of empirical evidence that agri-environment options will benefit hedgehog populations. Our synthesis has implications for future conservation strategies for hedgehogs and insectivorous mammals living in agricultural landscapes, and calls for more empirical studies on agri-environment options and their potential benefits to hedgehogs. MDPI 2020-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7552150/ /pubmed/32899181 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10091566 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Commentary Yarnell, Richard W. Pettett, Carly E. Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title | Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title_full | Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title_fullStr | Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title_full_unstemmed | Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title_short | Beneficial Land Management for Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the United Kingdom |
title_sort | beneficial land management for hedgehogs (erinaceus europaeus) in the united kingdom |
topic | Commentary |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7552150/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32899181 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10091566 |
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