Make your own hedgehog!

After all the fun we've had making clay hedgehogs with children at South Gloucestershire primary schools in the last few weeks, we thought we'd share with our fellow readers how you can make one yourself! As well as having fun being creative, it's a great opportunity to learn some facts about our little spikey friends who are becoming endangered.

What you will need

• Clay (air drying is the best)
• Cocktail sticks snapped in half
• Googley eyes (can be found in craft shops) or small stones also look great

How to make your clay hedgehog

1. Get yourself a ball of clay, about the size of a satsuma.
2. Roll the clay into a smooth ball.
3. Squidge out some of the clay to make a nose. If you like you can prick little holes in the end of the nose for nostrils!
4. If you're feeling particularly creative, you can give your hog some teeth or maybe even give it some feet with claws.
5. When you're happy with the shape of your hedgehog you can put the eyes in place and give it spikes with lots of little cocktail sticks.
6. Leave your hedgehog to air-dry overnight

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Hedgehog facts

• Hedgehogs have between 6000-7000 spikes.
• Their eyesight is quite poor and so they depend on their strong sense of smell and hearing to find food and stay clear of predators.
• Hedgehogs roll into a ball and point their spikes in all different directions to protect themselves against predators such as badgers and foxes.
• Hedgehogs love eating slugs, snails, beatles caterpillars and worms.
• A third of urban hedgehogs have disappeared in the last 20 years.

For more info on why hedgehogs numbers are on the decline and what you can do to help them, visit our Wild Hedgehogs website here. We're running a survey to help us get a clear picture of where hedgehogs are doing well and not so well, so if you see a hedgehog (dead or alive) then map your sighting here.