Free rein for hedgehogs & their friends

During 2025, the Vontobel Foundation supported the project “Free rein for hedgehogs & their friends,” led by the association StadtNatur, with the goal of protecting hedgehogs and other small animals in Zurich and improving their habitats. 

Hedgehogs live predominantly in residential areas — but they are under pressure there. In Zurich, space that could be considered potential hedgehog habitat declined by 40 percent between 1991 and 2016. 

With a team of more than 60 volunteers, the Zurich-based association StadtNatur conducted an investigation in 2025 of the current distribution of hedgehogs in the city by identifying traces left by the animals in specially built tunnels. The results provided some reassurance: compared with 2016/2017, the hedgehog population in Zurich has slightly recovered.
 
To help make sure that this positive trend continues, the association launched the project “Free rein for hedgehogs & their friends.”  For hedgehogs, the city — with all its walls and fences — is virtually a labyrinth of obstacles and dead ends, making access to food and safe places difficult. These small pedestrians need to be able to move freely, but any barrier they encounter that is more than 20 centimeters high is one they will probably not be able to climb over.

Once again, the association quickly assembled a team of volunteers who, in coordination with property owners, created small openings in dozens of fences and walls, marking these passageways with small metal plaques. Where needed, they also installed such aids as small wooden boards to help hedgehogs avoid hazards like garden ponds and even shafts of light – a real blessing for these vulnerable creatures.  Cameras mounted to record the impact of these changes documented that these new passages started to be used by hedgehogs and other small wild animals within just a few days. 

In addition to this project, StadtNatur also raises public awareness of the needs of small wild animals by means of brochures, excursions, school projects, and information provided on its online reporting platform.