The conservation benefits of wildlife rehabilitation are equivocal, but could be substantial for formerly common species that are declining rapidly but are still commonly admitted to wildlife centres. We used a questionnaire survey to estimate the number of practitioners rehabilitating West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in Britain and the numbers entering hospitals/centres in one benchmark year (2016); practitioners were identified using an internet search and snowball sampling. Overall, 304 rehabilitators were identified: 148 supplied data on their structure, and 174 outlined the number of hedgehogs admitted in 2016. The former comprised 62.6% small (≤50 hedgehogs admitted year−1), 16.7% medium-sized (51−250 yr−1), and 20.7% large (>250 yr−1) hospitals; however, these accounted for 4.8%, 12.4%, and 82.8% of hedgehog admissions, respectively. Small hospitals were less likely to be registered as a charity, have paid staff, have a social media account, to record admissions electronically, or to conduct post-release monitoring. However, they were more likely to operate from their home address and to have been established for ≤5 years. Extrapolations indicate that this rehabilitation community admitted >40,000 hedgehogs in 2016, of which approximately 50% could have been released. These figures suggest that wildlife rehabilitation has potentially been an important factor in the dynamics of hedgehog populations in Britain in the last two decades.
Keywords: Erinaceus europaeus; European hedgehog; animal welfare; conservation; wildlife hospital; wildlife rehabilitation.