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  • Published: 21 April 2024
  • ISBN: 9781804991954
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $27.99

Ghosts in the Hedgerow

who or what is responsible for our favourite mammal’s decline




Conservationist and author of the acclaimed Elegy of a River Tom Moorhouse takes a 360-degree approach to investigating why hedgehog numbers are in freefall and what can be done to protect British wildlife.

'A necessary nature book, with prose as sharp as prickles' John Lewis-Stempel

In poll after poll hedgehogs come out top as Britain's favourite mammal. And yet their numbers have been in freefall, estimated to have halved in less than twenty years. Why? Who or what is responsible for the disappearance of so many thousands of hedgehogs in recent decades?

Hopeful and informative, in a story full of twists, turns and uncomfortable truths, conservationist Tom Moorhouse explores the trade-offs that exist between humans and wildlife. And, drawing on insights from other hedgehog experts, he hands readers the toolkit necessary to help bring our prickly friends back.

  • Published: 21 April 2024
  • ISBN: 9781804991954
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Tom Moorhouse

Dr Tom Moorhouse is a conservation research scientist who has worked for twenty years at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, in Oxford University’s Zoology Department. He completed his DPhil on the conservation ecology of water voles in 2003 at Oxford. He has since published extensively in the academic literature on water vole and hedgehog ecology and conservation, the management of aquatic non-native species, and on the conservation and animal welfare impacts of humans’ recreational use of wildlife. His current work examines wildlife consumer psychology and experimentally tests consumer education messaging, designed to reduce global demand for wildlife products.
Outside of conservation research, Tom is also the author of award-winning children’s fiction, and has published a number of public engagement pieces based on his own research, including the winner of the 2003 New Scientist New Millennial Science Writing Competition, entitled Reintroducing ‘Ratty’.

Also by Tom Moorhouse

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Praise for Ghosts in the Hedgerow

Tom Moorhouse is brilliant at weaving complex ecological ideas into an easily accessible and very entertaining form - Ghosts in the Hedgerow is a delight.

Hugh Warwick, ecologist and author of A Prickly Affair

Any project that highlights the plight of hedgehogs is invaluable and GHOSTS IN THE HEDGEROW fulfils that task admirably.

Tim Rice, lyricist, author and host of the Get Onto My Cloud podcast

By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, Ghosts in the Hedgerow is a triumph of accessible science writing.

Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell

Jaunty, scholarly, hugely entertaining, wise, deadly serious and downright fun ... A triumph.

Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild, Being a Human and A Little Brown Sea

A wonderfully entertaining and intriguing book. The hedgehog has found its champion.

Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs and How to Read Water

Moorhouse rootles out all the reasons for the tragic, resistible decline of the hedgehog, perhaps the iconic mammal of our countryside. A necessary nature book, with prose as sharp as prickles.

John Lewis-Stempel

Hedgehogs have been with us for millions of years, but they seem to be getting less abundant. How do we know, and why is it happening? These are important questions, easy to ask but very difficult to answer. That's partly because the issues are complex, research scanty and hedgehogs are surprisingly difficult to study properly. Tom has written a thorough, but very readable assessment of the challenges posed by the 20th century and what we can do to help the hapless 'Hedgie'.

Pat Morris, author, and president of the British Hedgehogs Preservation Society

For those with an interest in endangered species, Tom Moorhouse's Ghosts in the Hedgerow: A Hedgehog Whoddunit is a caring, amiable guide to who (and what) is responsible for the worrying decline ofI this cute mammal.

Martin Chilton, Independent