University of Salford welcomes first hedgehog house to campus
A new kind of accommodation has appeared at the University of Salford this week, but this one has been built with a very different type of campus resident in mind.
The University’s state-of-the-art hedgehog house has been placed on Peel Park Campus and is awaiting its first prickly visitors to take up residence for the winter.
The house comes as colleagues and students pledged to make Salford hedgehog friendly by joining the Hedgehog Friendly Campus (HFC) scheme, a national campaign designed to safeguard the hedgehog population and turn universities into a suitable and safe space where they can thrive.
The team at the University is run by Estates and Facilities with the help of colleague and student volunteers, and is currently working towards Bronze accreditation by completing a list of 10 objectives.
Creating a hedgehog house is one of those objectives and colleagues in the Maker Space worked with the 3D Workshop in the Salford School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology to build the house.
Leftover Oriented Strand Board (OSB), a robust and cheap material, from previous projects was cut using the table saw in the New Adelphi workshop. The cut pieces were assembled using a nail gun and wood glue and a hole was drilled into the rear of the house for extra ventilation. The assembled house was then treated with a yacht varnish (on the outside only) and finished with a laser engraved HFC sign.
The house includes a pipe for ventilation and a tunnel to the entrance, and is expected to last for a few years.
Bec Bennett, Head of Environmental Sustainability, said: “We are absolutely delighted that our first hedgehog house has been built and placed on campus in time for winter. A big thank you to our Maker Space for building it. Hedgehogs hibernate from November to March so it’s great news that we can provide somewhere safe and warm for nearby hogs seeking shelter.
“A small family of hedgehogs can fit comfortably inside the house and the way that it has been designed using a small, narrow tunnel as the entrance means that they are safe from any passing predators. We’ll also be placing ink and paper near the tunnel to capture how many hogs are taking up residence inside over the next few months.”
If you’re interested in helping the University of Salford to become hedgehog friendly, please get in touch.
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