Fears for hedgehog numbers spikes as it faces risk of extinction

The conservation status of western European hedgehogs on the Red List has worsened from least concern to near threatened. File picture

Hedgehog numbers have suffered rapid declines, conservationists warned as the species was listed as "near threatened" in a global assessment.

The latest update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of threatened species has also found more than a third (38%) of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction.