Country diary: preparing the garden for a much-loved mammal

For the past decade, my garden has been enclosed to provide a home for non-releasable blind and amputee hedgehogs. A six-foot perimeter fence kept them safely contained, but presented an impenetrable barrier to their wild kin, so when my last resident, Poppet, passed away at the grand old age of 10 (a hedgehog’s average life expectancy in the wild is two to three years), I signed up to participate in Hedgehog Street, a nationwide conservation initiative empowering people to improve their neighbourhood for these much-loved mammals.

Since the millennium, Britain’s hedgehog population has declined by a third in urban areas, but the appearance on my driveway of glistening black droppings packed full of invertebrate exoskeletons gave me hope that I wasn’t too late to take action. A foraging hedgehog can roam up to a mile a night, so ensuring they can travel freely between gardens is vital to reduce habitat loss and fragmentation.

Related: Loss of EU protections could imperil UK hedgehogs, report says

I pulled the bottom slat off a fence panel (alternatively, a hole measuring 13cm square is sufficient for an adult to squeeze through) and as dusk fell, I scattered a trail of hedgehog food on either side of the “hedgehog highway” and settled down to wait. Before long I heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel drive and the pig-like grunts and snuffles that give hedgehogs their name. In the shadows, not one, but two pointed snouts appeared beneath the fence. The first scuttled past me. The second, larger animal trundled behind, pausing to sniff my bare feet, its moist nose dabbing my ankles.

It quickly became obvious that they were a courting couple, the male pursuing the female across the lawn, round the pond and though the flower borders, stems and grasses swaying as they tunnelled a path through the undergrowth.

Cornering her, he began to circle, the female pivoting to face him. Round and round they spun, like Viennese waltzers, the female jerking her body and chuffing like a steam locomotive. This courtship ritual can last for hours, but just as I was about to turn in, the female stilled and pressed her belly to the ground. As she flattened her spines, the male mounted her, biting the prickles on her shoulders to steady himself.