Hedgehogs show how to save planet

The 42-year-old first became involved with them more than 20 years ago when, as part of his ecology course at Leicester Polytechnic, he went to North Ronaldsey in the Orkneys, spending a summer looking at how this introduced species was affecting the local ecology. But he fell in love in 1993, when radio-tracking 12 hedgehogs for a project in Devon. He gave them names and observed their behaviour patterns. “I was seeing them every night and that’s when I fell in love with Nigel,” was how he put it, when we met, just after his return from the European Hedgehog Research Group meeting in Holland.

Several years on, that love has produced his first book. A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs looks not only at the physiology of these nocturnal creatures, but their place in literature and the people who interact with them. He also looks at recent hedgehog controversies, like culling on the isle of Uist in Scotland to protect sea birds. The book is a delight to read, in part because of Hugh’s wry, whimsical tone. There are some seriously nutty people involved in the hedgehog world, including the US promoters of the International Hedgehog Olympic Games. However, what I liked about the book was that Hugh is playful rather than disrespectful when detailing people’s eccentricities.

When you meet Hugh, you realise he speaks as he writes; he is a great raconteur and his conversation is peppered with humour, hyperbole and flights of fancy. You end up learning an enormous amount about hedgehogs without really noticing, and laugh quite a lot, too.

Hugh has always been interested in the natural world but cites Jane Goodall, who since 1960 has been studying chimpanzees in Tanzania, as being the role model that he wanted to follow. Indeed, she was his second crush after Kate Bush, but for very different reasons. “She was so stunning, wandering through the jungle, paying attention to what animals were doing.” She led him towards observational ecology. “We can learn so much from animals, just by taking the time to observe what they can do,” he said.

The book has a serious message, not surprisingly, given Hugh’s environmental background. In the last chapter, entitled How Hedgehogs Can Save The World, he suggests the hedgehog should be an international symbol of conservation. “If we can form that empathetic link with the natural world, we’re more likely to do something to stop it being trashed.

“If we rely on us trying to form that link with the charismatic megafauna that are being offered to us by conservation wildlife groups, then we’re missing the point, because it’s like relying on pictures of supermodels to form our relationships with other people. We need the boy and girl next door and the hedgehog is the equivalent of that.”

He is not suggesting that people hug hedgehogs, but that the prickly creatures are more accessible and easier to empathise with. He also argues that the Government should include hedgehogs when measuring biodiversity.

Living in Florence Park, he’s also in love with Oxford. “I don’t know any other place, which is as small as Oxford is, but which has got the density of interesting things; as in people, ideas, events, stuff. It’s like you’ve got a big chunk of London, boiled it up and distilled it into a nice fine spirit. ”

He is pleased at the book’s reception in the United States. “It’s published as The Hedgehog’s Dilemma. The title is based around the whole Schopenhauer idea, which is an argument about interpersonal relationships, but starts with the idea of two hedgehogs wanting to be close to each other.”

US reviewers recognised Hugh’s ecological message; that we are in a hedgehog’s dilemma with the planet. “We get too close, we stamp on it and trash it; we get too far apart and we’re bereft because we’re removed from what’s so vital to us,” he said.

l A Prickly Affair is published by Allen Lane at £13.99.