A WILDLIFE group is urging motorists to look out for hedgehogs all over Dorset with a new campaign that highlights wildlife death caused by traffic.
"Ghost hedgehogs" have been erected on roadsides in Dorset to highlight the plight of hedgehogs killed by speeding vehicles.
The signs can be spotted in towns and villages where hedgehog deaths by traffic have occurred.
The hedgehogs, made of white-painted wood, are being put up by the Dorset Mammal Group following an estimation that detailed a 73 per cent decline in the UK hedgehog population in the last 20 years.
Hedgehogs are now on the official Red List of Britain's mammals, categorised as vulnerable to extinction.
However, this means there are still enough hedgehogs for the population to recover, if humans act now.
One of the biggest threats to the hedgehog is traffic as they do not run away from danger due to being protected by their spines.
When a hedgehog senses danger, it simply rolls up into a ball of prickles for its defence, resulting in a squashed hedgehog as traffic approaches.
To tackle this issue, the Dorset Mammal Group created the ghost hedgehog initiative with the hope that the spectral mammals will encourage motorists to slow down and drive carefully.
Head of the hedgehog section of the Dorset Mammal Group, Susy Varndell said: "The aim of the ghost hedgehog project is to raise awareness in local human populations of hedgehog deaths hotspots. It is hoped that this idea will catch on in other counties to help reduce the number of hedgehog road deaths across the country."
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