Dylan marks Hedgehog Awareness Week with live event

April 27, 2021

Dylan is a Hedgehog Champion for Monmouth. Photograph by Jay Williams

A 14-year-old boy will be marking Hedgehog Awareness Week with a special online event this weekend.

Dylan is the local Hedgehog Champion for Monmouth and will be running a live streaming event from his garden on Sunday 2nd May from 6.30pm.

The Monmouth School for Boys’ pupil will be giving a tour of his garden, discussing how to make gardens hedgehog friendly, and showing the wildlife cameras he’s using.

The Year 9 pupil has been featured in the Daily Telegraph recently and is now in the current Spring Edition of BBC Wildlife magazine.

Dylan will be joined at the virtual event by Grace Johnson, the Hedgehog Officer at Hedgehog Street, for a live question-and-answer session, so it promises to be a fabulous event.

Last year, Dylan, a budding filmmaker, triumphed in a competition after discovering hedgehogs in his Monmouth garden during lockdown.

He won a top prize in the University of South Wales’ Film & TV School Wales Schools and Colleges Awards.

Dylan filmed, edited and produced a fascinating 10-minute documentary on The Wonderful World of Hedgehogs.

As a result, the teenager won the Best Documentary Film (11-15) category in the University of South Wales’ virtual awards celebration.

At the time, Dylan said: “In May, I discovered I had hedgehogs in my garden.

“I set up two night vision cameras and I spent quite a while working on the film – recording, editing and putting it all together.

“I discovered lots of interesting things about hedgehogs and I went online and got involved in a number of organisations, too, and interviewed some lovely people for my film.”

He added: “Sadly, a lot of hedgehogs in the UK are injured accidently by gardeners using lawnmowers and strimmers.

“I am hoping to get involved with hedgehog organisations and tool manufacturers to warn people to be more hedgehog aware and to make them check long grass or hedgerows before using gardening equipment.”

All those interested in attending Dylan’s virtual event this Sunday, can subscribe to his excellent hedgehogaware channel on YouTube at https://youtu.be/tQWuoaKsR9M and set a reminder for the day.