Spiky little mammal beats mighty oak and charismatic badgers in BBC Wildlife Magazine poll to find a national species for Britain
It is a prickly character with a voracious appetite, a passion for gardens and a noisy sex life – and now the hedgehog has been chosen as the best natural emblem of the British nation.
The humble insectivorous mammal, which has rapidly declined in recent years, surprisingly triumphed over the charismatic badger and the mighty oak tree in a BBC Wildlife Magazine poll to find a national species for Britain.
The victory for the ultimate underdog – picking up 42% of more than 9,000 votes cast – was welcomed by Ann Widdecombe, patron of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. "I'm over the moon that the hedgehog came top in the BBC Wildlife poll. It is a quintessentially British creature," she said. "We all need to rally to help the species, which is declining at an alarming rate."
Despite being a nation of animal lovers with a key role in the emergence of the modern conservation movement in the western world, Britain does not have a national species, unlike many other countries such as Russia, Australia and South Africa.
In the poll to mark the magazine's 50th birthday, readers were asked to choose a national symbol from 10 species including nominated by wildlife charities which included much-loved animals such as the otter, red squirrel and water vole, as well as plants and birds such as the bluebell, robin and swallow.
But the BBC Wildlife Magazine attracted accusations of "institutional vertebratism" for allowing people to vote for just one spineless creature – the seven-spot ladybird. No frogs, toads, adders, great-crested newts or bumblebees were included on its shortlist and spectacular butterflies such as the purple emperor and the swallowtail were also omitted.
"The 'token' invertebrate in polls like this is invariably an insect, terrestrial and brightly coloured," complained Sally-Ann Spence, who runs minibeast roadshows in Wiltshire. "Yet of the known animal species on Earth, just 4% are vertebrates. It's the invertebrates that are tirelessly recycling, fertilising, pollinating and purifying, and creating the food source at the base of myriad food-webs. They deserve better."
The last time the magazine had an insect cover star was back in September 2009, when a painted lady butterfly did the honours.
Ben Hoare, features editor of BBC Wildlife Magazine, welcomed the hedgehog's "surprise" victory and said the magazine's vertebrate-dominated shortlist only reflected the tendency of society to overlook many invertebrates.
He said: "In a way it's a fair cop. Most people looking at the media are left the impression that the only invertebrates are bees and colourful butterflies and beetles. All the other insects are very important but I'm not sure whether they make a good national symbol. Fur and feathers tend to win over creepy crawlies."
For all the concern over badger culling and the disappearance of red squirrels, Hoare said the hedgehog was a worthy winner, a much-loved – and much-missed creature whose population has halved to less than a million in the last two decades.
Ever since Beatrix Potter's creation of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the hedgehog has been seen as an industrious and friendly animal – qualities which we might like to associate with Britishness. In reality, as well as its colourful sex life, the hedgehog is a ruthless pest-controller and gardener's friend, capable of consuming 60-80g of slugs and snails each night.
"Of course they are not really warm-hearted and generous but we consider them to be friendly because we see them in our gardens," said Hoare. "Nationally we also tend to feel sorry for the underdog and seeing all those hedgehogs squashed on the roads probably makes us even more fond of them."
