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Beloved Timmy Time characters and thousands of little legs set to take big steps for nature this spring

Timmy and Apricot © Aardman Animations

Join The Wildlife Trusts’ Hedgehog Walk for a wild adventure from 30th March to 30th April

From 30th March to 30th April, little legs across the country will be taking big steps for wildlife in The Hedgehog Walk – a fun and family-friendly fundraising challenge in partnership with Timmy Time of the multi-award-winning studio Aardman. 

On a mission to create safer spaces for hedgehogs to thrive, the annual challenge invites thousands of individuals year-on-year - including families, schools, clubs and learning groups - to walk, wheel, crawl or roll 3km with Timmy and friends. Travelling the same distance a hedgehog wanders in a single night, the challenge helps to raise vital funds for nature and highlights how everyone can help wildlife, including hedgehogs, to thrive. 

With hedgehog numbers having fallen by thirty per cent in just over ten years, there are now thought to be fewer than one million left in the UK. As the challenge takes place during the same time hedgehogs start to come out of hibernation, those taking part can really help to make a difference and raise awareness of hedgehogs’ plight.  

father and daughter walking through a park surrounded by leaves

©chabybucko

Priya Popat from The Wildlife Trusts, says: “Nature is a lifeline for us, and it’s hard to ignore how much pressure wildlife across the UK is under right now - from hedgehogs in our gardens to the trees on our streets and the life in our seas. The Hedgehog Walk is a lovely, simple way for people to reconnect with the natural world while helping to protect it. By taking on this 3km walking challenge, you can enjoy the nature around you and know you’re doing something small but meaningful to support the wildlife and wild places that make our local spaces so special.” 

Rachael Peacock, head of brand marketing at Aardman, the creators of Timmy Time, says: “We’re delighted to return with The Wildlife Trusts for another Hedgehog Walk, with Timmy and Apricot leading the way once more. It’s a brilliant opportunity for families to enjoy the outdoors together, learn about the wildlife around them, and take part in something that makes a real difference.” 

Sign up today, and your hoglet will receive a downloadable activity pack bursting with Timmy Time fun. It’s packed with engaging resources such as posters, activity sheets, fact sheets and tracking timelines to help mark the 3km milestone, sparking curiosity and helping young wildlife enthusiasts learn how to care for the natural world around them. Plus, you’ll get everything you need to fundraise for the wildlife you and your little one love.  

Whether you’re toddling through the park with Timmy, marching through the woods with Apricot, or counting laps in the playground with Bumpy, every step with Timmy and friends helps build a better future for wildlife. Use the hashtag #HedgehogWalk on social media to share your adventure!

Sign up for the Hedgehog Walk

Top tips to help hedgehogs

  • Create hedgehog highways
    Hedgehogs need to be able to roam far and wide. Get together with your neighbours and cut a 13cm x 13cm hole in your fence or dig a channel beneath your garden boundaries to connect your gardens.
  • Make water safe
    Hedgehogs are great swimmers but can struggle to climb out of steep-sided ponds. Provide a ramp or create shallow areas at the edge so they can scramble out.
  • Provide nesting sites
    Logs, leaf piles, wilderness areas and purpose-built hedgehog homes make great places for spikey friends to nest and hibernate.
  • Grow a variety of plants
    Attract plenty of natural hedgehog food by keeping your garden diverse. Ponds, log piles, hedges and a wide variety of plant types make the perfect habitats.
  • Avoid the use of pesticides
    Ditch the slug pellets, as they can harm hedgehogs. Thankfully, hedgehogs are natural pest controllers and need a varied supply of invertebrate prey to stay healthy.  

Editor's notes

Facts about hedgehogs: 

  • Hedgehogs are disappearing from our countryside as fast as tigers are worldwide. In 2022, a report on Britain's hedgehogs revealed they have declined by between 30-75% since 2000. There are now thought to be fewer than 1 million left in the UK.  
  • European hedgehogs are found across UK habitats - gardens, hedgerows, woodlands, grasslands, parks and cemeteries. Despite this, they are classed as vulnerable following worrying declines.
  • The main threats to hedgehogs, and causes for this decline, are thought to be habitat and food loss, pesticides, roads and developments.
  • Adult hedgehogs travel impressive distances each night, with home ranges as big as 10-20 hectares (20 hectares is around 28 football pitches in size). In suburban areas, this means they range over entire housing estates and neighbourhoods.
  • Hedgehogs are typically 15-25cm long, weigh 1-2kg and have 5,000-7,000 spines. Their lifespan can be from 2-5 years but they have been known to live as long as 10 years. They are nocturnal and hibernate between November and March. 

About Aardman 

Aardman is an employee-owned company, based in Bristol (UK) and co-founded in 1976 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton. An independent, multi-Academy Award® and BAFTA® award winning studio, it produces feature films, series, advertising and interactive entertainment. 

Its global productions are renowned for their uniquely entertaining and brilliantly characterised characters. The studio’s work – which includes the creation of much-loved characters including Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Timmy Time and Morph – is often imitated, and yet the company continues to lead the animation field producing a rare brand of visually stunning, comedic content for cinema, broadcasters, digital platforms and live experiences around the world.  

2026 sees the studio celebrate its 50th anniversary with a roster of events and celebrations highlighting the craft and legacy of Aardman and the launch of a new movie, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom in the autumn. 

Timmy Time 

Timmy is the littlest lamb in Shaun the Sheep’s flock and the star of his own award-winning spin-off series Timmy Time, which premiered on CBeebies in April 2009 and is broadcast in over 150 territories worldwide. Timmy Time is set in a Nursery and the core audience are preschoolers. Each episode follows a day in the life of Timmy and his friends as they learn about life and friendship. The original series consisted of 78 ten-minute episodes with no dialogue. Aardman recently produced an updated version of Timmy Time for a new generation of fans, creating five-minute edits of the original episodes and featuring a child’s voiceover. 

Aardman and the British Council joined forces in 2014 to create Learning Time with Timmy – a multi-dimensional learning experience to help children aged 2-6 around the world to learn the English language. The portfolio has various learner touchpoints including face to face courses in themed venues around the world, apps, complementary merchandise and an animated video series which launched on a dedicated YouTube channel in 2018. www.timmytime.tv www.youtube.com/learningtimewithtimmy 

The Wildlife Trusts    

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities and one central charity, with more than 945,000 members and over 33,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore over 2,600 special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. www.wildlifetrusts.org 

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