We found microplastics in hedgehogs – then we traced them back to pet food

By Emily Thrift, PhD Candidate and Doctoral Tutor in Ecology, University of Sussex

When colleagues and I found microplastics in hedgehog droppings, we wanted to know where they were coming from. One answer was surprisingly close to home: pet food.

The story began in 2021, when we collected 189 hedgehog faeces samples from residential gardens and rehabilitation centres across the UK. We found plastic in 19% of them. Despite being one of Britain’s best-loved wild animals, and now officially listed as “near…

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