THE 'catastrophic' decline of the hedgehog means campaigners need your help.

Hedgehogs are often confined mainly to urban areas – towns and villages - having been driven from the countryside by a complex combination of factors, according to the Dorset Mammal Group.

The group hopes to build a picture of how healthy Bridport's hedgehog population is.

It needs you to send in up to date records of hedgehog sightings, dead or alive, in Bridport or the surrounding area and villages. These records will eventually end up on the DERC database. The group only requires one record from a site which has visiting hedgehogs and doesn’t need further records from such a site this year.

The record should contain the following information:

Name of the person and what they saw; location – a street or village name is sufficient; date and time of the sighting.

Records are to be sent by email to info@colinvarndell.co.uk