Whilst the 5th of November is a beloved night to celebrate with friends and family, you can easily spare a thought for wildlife by following these top tips:

Build your bonfire on the same day that you will light it. The longer it’s left for, the more likely it is that wildlife will wander in.

If you have stored materials for your bonfire outdoors then move them to a different patch of ground before building. Always place the bonfire on open ground – never on a pile of leaves as a hedgehog may be hiding underneath.

Check the entire bonfire for hedgehogs by lifting parts of the bonfire wood using a pole or broom. Use a torch to look inside the bonfire and listen for a hissing sound, as this is the noise that hedgehogs make when they are disturbed or distressed. Always light your bonfire from one corner, rather than in the centre, in order to give hedgehogs a chance to escape if they need to.

If you do find a hedgehog, slowly and calmly pick it up with gardening gloves, along with any nesting material it may have been sitting in, and place it in a cardboard box lined with newspaper. Relocate the box to a safe location that is far from any fires or wait until the bonfire is over and dampen down the fire site with water before releasing the hedgehog under a bush or a log pile.