London’s Regent’s Park – 395 acres of parkland in between Camden, Marylebone and a short hop from the West End – is an island of green, surrounded by a sea of tarmac, traffic, shops and swish apartment blocks. Popular with local sports teams, dog walkers and picnickers, it’s open to humans from dawn until dusk, when park wardens skirt the perimeters ringing a bell to clear out the final stragglers. 

But few of those who stream through the gates of Regent’s Park each day know that they share it with a beloved, if prickly, companion. 

The park is home to an estimated 30-40 hedgehogs, who emerge after dusk to snuffle about its bushes and long grass, feasting on invertebrates, fruit, carrion and occasionally even toads. Hedgehogs can be found in the outer, more suburban parts of London too – Hampstead Heath, and in the boroughs of Redbridge and Bromley – though notably not in Richmond Park, due to its large badger population, which can both predate hedgehogs and outcompete them for food. 

But the Regent’s Park hedgehogs are the last remaining population in central London. Research has shown that the park is just about big enough and with enough in the way of food and shelter to sustain a viable population, which remains marooned within its island confines. 

Mrs Tiggy-Winkle lived in a tiny cottage in the fells of the Lake District, a far cry from the bright lights of central London. Yet, as a report this week has shown, hedgehogs are increasingly making homes in our towns and cities. The study by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society showed that while the urban hedgehog population is stable and showing signs of recovery, their rural cousins continue to decline, with numbers plummeting by up to 75 per cent over the past two decades.

Part of the reason is thought to be down to greater awareness of hedgehogs and wildlife among urbanites, with neighbours joining together to make gardens more hedgehog friendly. 

But hedgehogs are also a generalist species – distributed from Norway to Spain, they’re able to tolerate a range of different conditions if they have a few basic provisions like food, water and shelter. For this reason, they are often described as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ – if they are getting hammered, the rest of our wildlife is in serious trouble too.