64 



THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



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Map 2. Distribution of hedgehog deaths on all roads in 

 Wiltshire, 1976-85 



coverage of the survey. The naturalists made many 

 of their observations in the field but the location of 

 the residences of seven has been included in the 

 map to indicate the extent covered by the survey. 



It will be seen that the geographical coverage is 

 reasonably complete but there are some inevitable 

 gaps. One of these is the military training area of 

 Salisbury Plain but naturalists who know this area 

 well say that it has never had many hedgehogs in 

 recent decades except in the Avon valley (and see 

 Browne's data in Dillon 1997). Other chalk 

 downland areas, Cranborne Chase and 

 Marlborough Downs, are also relatively under- 

 observed except where there are villages along the 

 valleys and fringing escarpments. The results have 

 been compared so far as is possible with the survey 

 of Marion Browne occupying the years 1976-85 

 and published by WANHS 1987. 



Two areas were subject to a more detailed 

 survey, although owing to restrictions of access due 

 to foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, neither was as 

 rigorous as intended. These were: 



1 . The villages of Donhead St Andrew and 

 Donhead St. Mary that have apparently been devoid 

 of hedgehogs for many decades. 



2 It is established that hedgehogs are absent 

 from the much-studied Wytham Wood near Oxford, 



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Map 3. Total hedgehog road casualties, 1 999-2000 



but they should naturally flourish in woodlands and 

 a study of Savernake Forest, the largest woodland 

 in Wiltshire, seemed appropriate. 



ROAD TRAFFIC 

 ACCIDENTS (RTAS) 



Maps 2 and 3 indicate the locations of all RTAs in 

 both the 1976-85 survey and the 1999-2000 survey. 

 In so far as these observations are, in both surveys, 

 derived from random sightings by many observers 

 without any consistent pattern of car-journeys, they 

 are not a very reliable guide to the county-wide 

 frequency. They are underestimates in that 

 hedgehog carcases may disappear within 24 hours 

 of first observation but conversely records were 

 checked for duplication as a carcase can remain for 

 some time. The longest record was of a recognisably 

 bristly carapace in the middle of the road outside 

 Pewsey church from May to August 1999. 



It is difficult to draw firm conclusions from 

 comparing these surveys. Both the number and 

 location of observers differ and the factor of time 

 spent travelling on the roads is unknown while the 

 volume of traffic has risen to any unknown degree. 



