Hedgehogs have had some unexpected good news after years of decline in British gardens caused by habitat loss and fragmentation: their numbers may finally be on the way up again.

Readers of BBC Gardeners’ World magazine were asked to chronicle the wildlife in their gardens, and reported that hedgehog sightings were up two percentage points. The magazine’s previous annual survey had them to be declining.

Previous reports found that numbers of the mammals had fallen by 30%–75% across different areas of the countryside since 2000. This is thought to be because of habitat loss and fragmentation – hedgehogs like to travel around and walls and fences stop them doing so – and it has also been suggested that pesticides are killing the insects they eat. Poisonous pellets ingested by slugs and snails that are then eaten by hedgehogs can also kill them.