A 14-year-old Monmouth boy has marked this year’s Hedgehog Awareness Week with his own online event and a live television appearance.

Dylan is the local Hedgehog Champion for Monmouth and his passion for safeguarding the nation’s favourite spiny mammal was highlighted in a live interview with ITV Wales News.

Reporter and presenter, Mike Griffiths, visited Dylan at his home in Monmouth and spoke to the teenager about his ‘Hedgehog Aware’ campaign.

Dylan, a pupil at Monmouth School for Boys, was keen to celebrate Hedgehog Awareness Week, an initiative set up by Hedgehog Street – a charity working with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, which ran from 2nd to 8th May.

Dylan ran a live streaming event from his garden on 2nd May in which he gave a tour of his garden, discussed how to make gardens hedgehog friendly, and showed the wildlife cameras he’s using.

He was joined at the virtual event by Grace Johnson, the Hedgehog Officer at Hedgehog Street, for a live question-and-answer session.

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

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

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.

Dylan first discovered he had hedgehogs in his garden during lockdown in May last year.

He set up two night vision cameras and worked on the film – recording, editing and putting it all together.

Dylan devotes hours of his time to educate and inform people on how they can help protect and nurture hedgehogs, many of which could be in their back gardens.

“I would like to ask people to be more hedgehog aware and encourage them to check long grass or hedgerows before using gardening equipment,” he said.

“Sadly, a lot of hedgehogs in the UK are injured accidently by gardeners using strimmers and I would like to help protect hedgehogs from the many daily dangers they face, especially as they are now classified as vulnerable to extinction.”