Northumberland residents asked to help out hedgehogs this Bonfire Night

As the weather is turning colder, wetter, darker and windier, it’s the time that hedgehogs start looking for places to hibernate and, to our little prickly friends, an unlit bonfire is equivalent to a five-star hotel.

If possible, build it on the same day it is to be lit. The longer it’s left for, the more likely a hedgehog will wander in.

Geoff Dobbins, Northumberland Wildlife Trust estates officer manager, said: “To a hedgehog looking for a place to sleep, an unlit bonfire is a ready-made bed. 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 death.

“Hedgehogs are great friends to gardeners as they are natural pest killers, so let’s do all we can to help them.”