Hedgehog voted number one NEWS
The humble hedgehog has been voted by the public as the top icon of the environment, as part of the Environment Agency's 10th anniversary.
The humble hedgehog, immortalised by the character 'Mrs Tiggy-winkle' in Beatrix Potter's classic children's books - has been voted by the public as England and Wales' number one Icon of the Environment. As part of the Environment Agency's 10th anniversary celebrations people were asked to take part in an ICON of the Environment poll and to nominate and vote for their favourite environmental icon, at the official ICONS - A Portrait of England website.
From a field strewn with more than 70 nominations, the hedgehog emerged victorious ahead of the otter, red squirrel, and oak tree, with bluebell woods rounding out the top five.
'As an iconic symbol of the environment the hedgehog is very appropriate - it can appear to be hazardous and impregnable, but in reality, it's vulnerable and fragile,' said Environment Agency Director of Corporate Affairs Helen McCallum. 'What's conspicuous about the three most popular icons, is the delicate state of these species - otters are recovering from near extinction due to pesticides, red squirrels are in the process of being squeezed out by grey squirrels, and hedgehogs are showing signs of being impacted by climate change1.
'Another common theme was the public's adherence to positive living icons from the natural environment rather than human influences. Nominations such as the Thames Barrier (No 60), footpaths (No 19) and bicycle (No 18) appeared well down the list. In fact the only manmade nomination to make the top ten was hedgerows, which in themselves are made up of living species.'
Icons of the Environment started off with just 12 nominations suggested by the Environment Agency's 13,000 staff - including species, habitats, places and manmade icons. Visitors to ICONS Online quickly added many more.
Managing Director of ICONS Online, Jerry Doyle said: 'It is wonderful that people are so fond of our natural heritage and want to preserve it. Thousands voted in the Icon of the Environment poll and chose the hedgehog as their living environment icon for 2007. ICONS is delighted this joint project with the Environment Agency generated such a huge response.'
Some prominent nominations for icon status received a mixed response at the ballot: The iconic credentials of English rain (No 49) failed to convince; windfarms (No 41) and allotments (No 31) didn't bother the judges with their environmental status.
The Lake District (No 14) beat the Peak District (# 25) to claim the most iconic natural region and it would seem the nation's canals (No 15) are held closer to the collective heart than our rivers (No 36).
'Overall, Individual species were without a doubt the most prominent vote winners as icons of our environment,' Ms McCallum said.
England and Wales' top 10 iconic species are the: Hedgehog (No 1), otter (No 2), red squirrel (No 3), oak tree (No 4), robin (No 6), brown trout (No 7), red kite ( No 8) water vole No( 10), barn owl ( No 11) and sparrow ( No 12).
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