What makes a house a home? Nest box use by West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is influenced by nest box placement, resource provisioning and site-based factors

Abstract

Artificial refuges provided by householders and/or conservation practitioners potentially represent one mechanism for mitigating declines in the availability of natural nest sites used for resting, breeding and hibernating in urban areas. The effectiveness of such refuges for different species is, however, not always known. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of UK householders to identify factors associated with the use of ground-level nest boxes for West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), a species of conservation concern. Overall, the percentage of boxes used at least once varied with season and type of use: summer day nesting (35.5-81.3%), breeding (7.2-28.2%), winter day nesting (20.1-66.5%) and hibernation (21.7-58.6%). The length of time the box had been deployed, the availability of artificial food and front garden to back garden access significantly increased the likelihood that a nest box had been used for all four nesting types, whereas other factors related to placement within the garden (e.g., in a sheltered location, on hardstanding such as paving, distance from the house) and resource provisioning (bedding) affected only some nesting behaviours. The factors most strongly associated with nest box use were the provisioning of food and bedding. These data suggest, therefore, that householders can adopt simple practices to increase the likelihood of their nest box being used. However, one significant limitation evident within these data is that, for welfare reasons, householders do not routinely monitor whether their box has been used. Consequently, future studies need to adopt strategies which enable householders to monitor their boxes continuously. Ultimately, such studies should compare the survival rates and reproductive success of hedgehogs within artificial refuges versus more natural nest sites, and whether these are affected by, for example, the impact of nest box design and placement on predation risk and internal microclimate.

Keywords: Artificial refuge; Citizen science; Conservation; Garden wildlife; Hedgehogs; Nest boxes; Urban ecology.

Figure 1. Examples of homemade (A–F) and commercially available (G–I) artificial refuges for hedgehogs.

Hedgehog nest boxes vary in size and design, but average nest box dimensions reported in this study (N = 4, 509) were 629 × 726 × 423 mm (width ×depth ×height) for homemade nest boxes, and 499 × 478 × 311 mm for manufactured nest boxes. Image credits: (A) G. Northcott; (B) C. Gazzard; (C) S. Wilkinson; (D) L. Pearse; (E) V. Yates; (F) R. Brenton. Commercially available nest box images: A. Gazzard; produced by (G) Home & Roost, (H) Coopers of Stortford and (I) Tom Chambers.