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Hedgehog help in the Canton of Glarus

Have you found an injured, sick or unusual hedgehog in the Canton of Glarus? On this page you will find the regional hedgehog station, important emergency numbers and information on how you can protect hedgehogs in Glarus gardens and settlements.

Hedgehogs have been recorded in all three Glarus municipalities. They live in particular in villages, residential areas, gardens, parks and other richly structured green spaces. There they find food, hiding places and suitable spots for raising their young and for hibernation.

At the same time, their habitats are increasingly fragmented by roads, dense construction, sealed surfaces, impermeable fences and intensively maintained green spaces. Pesticides, a lack of insects and robotic lawnmowers used at night also pose considerable dangers.

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A hedgehog in tall grass

Found a hedgehog – what should you do now?

Not every hedgehog needs human help. A healthy hedgehog is mainly active at dusk and at night. If you see a hedgehog during the day, this does not automatically mean that it is sick.

Action is needed in particular if the hedgehog:

  • is injured or bleeding
  • seems apathetic or does not roll up
  • staggers, walks in circles, wheezes or breathes heavily
  • is infested with flies, fly eggs or maggots
  • is noticeably thin or weak
  • lies unprotected in the sun for a long time
  • is a young hedgehog found obviously without its mother

  1. If possible, contact a hedgehog station before transporting the animal. The station can assess whether the hedgehog needs to be taken in and whether a care place is currently available.

    Hedgehog stations

  2. Until the handover, wearing gloves, you can place the hedgehog in a sufficiently high cardboard box. Line it with newspaper and a towel and put the box in a quiet place. Offer fresh water in a shallow dish. Never give the hedgehog cow’s milk and do not treat it yourself with medication or anti-parasite products.

Hedgehog stations and contact points in the Canton of Glarus

Please always call first before bringing in a hedgehog. Admission times and available care places can change at short notice.

  • Igel-Hilfe Glarnerland

    Igel-Hilfe Glarnerland is a volunteer-run association with a care station for sick, injured, weakened and orphaned hedgehogs. The animals receive expert care and, after their recovery, are released back into the wild wherever possible. Medical care is provided in cooperation with veterinarians from the canton.

    If nobody answers, leave a message. The association will call you back as quickly as it can.

  • Tierarztpraxis aniVETica AG in Näfels

    Here too, please call ahead before bringing the animal to the practice.

If the hedgehog station cannot be reached:

Emergency numbers that charge a fee may incur higher call charges. For a seriously injured hedgehog, you can also contact a veterinary practice or animal clinic. Before setting off, call to ask whether they treat hedgehogs or wild animals.

Note on this regional information page · As of: August 2026

This page brings together information and contact points for hedgehog protection in the Canton of Glarus. It is not an independent branch or a cantonal authority.

The care stations, practices and organisations listed operate independently. Admission conditions, responsibilities and capacities may change at any time. Therefore always contact the relevant body by telephone before transporting a hedgehog.

Cantonal contact points

The veterinary office is the right cantonal authority in particular for questions of animal welfare law, reports of problematic animal keeping or questions about care stations requiring a permit.

  • Kantonstierärztlicher Dienst des Kantons Glarus

    The Kantonstierärztlicher Dienst is responsible for animal health, animal welfare and other veterinary tasks of the canton. For the Canton of Glarus, this task is performed by the Amt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Tiergesundheit of the Canton of Graubünden.

    The veterinary service is not a hedgehog care station and does not normally take on the direct care of individual found animals. However, it can provide information on legal requirements, animal welfare or the correct handling of wild animals.

    If you find an injured or weakened hedgehog, first contact Igel-Hilfe Glarnerland or a veterinary practice.

  • Game wardens in the Canton of Glarus

    In the event of road accidents involving wildlife or other acute situations with wild animals, the responsible game warden can be contacted. For hedgehogs in need of help, Igel-Hilfe Glarnerland remains the first point of contact.

    Glarus Nord as well as Netstal and Ennenda

    Glarus Mitte and parts of Glarus Süd

    Glarus Süd – Grosstal

    Glarus Süd – Sernftal

    You can find the detailed allocation of areas on the official page of the game warden service of the Canton of Glarus.

Hedgehog sightings in the Canton of Glarus

On behalf of the cantonal Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, the Naturzentrum Glarnerland collects sightings of wild animals and plants. Current hedgehog sightings, dead animals found and notable locations can also be reported.

Such reports help to better document the distribution of hedgehogs in the Glarus region and to detect changes at an early stage.

Why the Glarus region is challenging for hedgehogs

In the Canton of Glarus, suitable hedgehog habitats are found mainly in the settlements and green spaces of the valley areas. The steep mountainsides and higher altitudes offer hedgehogs less suitable living conditions than the richly structured gardens, parks, cemeteries, hedgerow landscapes and woodland edges around the villages.

In the narrow valleys in particular, however, these habitats are cut off from one another by roads, buildings, walls, fences and intensively used land. On their nightly search for food, hedgehogs need to be able to cross several gardens and green spaces. Even a continuous garden fence or a wall can interrupt important routes.

Additional dangers arise from:

  • robotic lawnmowers operated at night
  • brush cutters and string trimmers
  • open light wells, cellar stairs and swimming pools
  • pesticides, slug pellets and other poisons
  • species-poor lawns without insects
  • a lack of leaf piles, brush piles and deadwood piles
  • busy roads
  • netting and litter lying around
Glarus with gardens and meadows on the valley floor, with the Vorderglärnisch behind
A hedgehog in front of a brush pile

How many hedgehogs live in the Canton of Glarus?

There is no official or scientifically verified figure for the total hedgehog population of the Canton of Glarus. Hedgehogs are nocturnal, move across large areas and are not systematically recorded individually. Sighting reports must therefore not be equated with a complete population count.

However, the Naturzentrum Glarnerland carried out cantonal calls for sightings in 2009 and 2023. In 2023, the Naturzentrum received 29 hedgehog reports and Igel-Hilfe Glarnerland received nine further reports. In total, 53 hedgehogs were observed.

By comparison, in 2009, 130 reports with a total of 183 observed hedgehogs were registered. The number of reports in 2023 was therefore only around 29 per cent of the 2009 figure.

The call for sightings is not a scientific population study. However, the marked difference suggests that encounters with hedgehogs in the Glarus region may have become rarer. The full results are available from the Naturzentrum Glarnerland.

A hedgehog among branches

Where have hedgehogs been observed in the Glarus region?

In the 2023 call for sightings, hedgehogs were reported from all three Glarus municipalities:

  • In Glarus Nord, reports came in from various villages. There were no records from the Kerenzerberg.
  • In the municipality of Glarus, hedgehogs were observed in Riedern, Glarus and Ennenda, among other places.
  • In Glarus Süd, sightings were reported from Mitlödi, Schwanden, Betschwanden and Linthal.

This information shows that hedgehogs generally occur from the northern part of the canton as far as the Grosstal. However, their distribution appears to be patchy and is concentrated mainly in suitable settlement areas on the valley floors.

Flowering rowan shrub as a native plant

Protecting habitats in the Canton of Glarus together

Private individuals, schools, municipalities, businesses, farms and horticultural businesses can all help to make the Glarus region safer for hedgehogs. What matters is not just individual natural gardens, but interconnected and permeable green spaces.

The following measures are particularly effective:

  • plant hedges, native shrubs and wildflowers
  • keep leaf piles, brush piles and deadwood piles as hiding places
  • create gaps of at least 10 × 10 centimetres in fences
  • use robotic lawnmowers only during the day and under supervision
  • check long grass and bushes carefully before mowing
  • do without pesticides, slug pellets and artificial fertiliser
  • provide water sources with a shallow, safe way out
  • secure light wells and open stairwells
  • fix garden netting at least 30 centimetres above the ground
  • allow small, undisturbed and natural areas in the garden

Such measures do not only help hedgehogs. They also benefit insects, birds, amphibians and numerous other animal species in the Glarus region.

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Free hedgehog courses for veterinary practice assistants throughout Switzerland

Hedgehog Help Switzerland offers free hedgehog courses for veterinary practice assistants throughout Switzerland. These courses are specially tailored to veterinary practice assistants who want to familiarise themselves with the particularities of hedgehog care and acquire professional knowledge of the medical treatment and care of hedgehogs. In veterinary practices, hedgehogs need special attention and expert care that differs from other wild animals – and this is exactly where our hedgehog courses for veterinary practice assistants come in.

In our courses you will learn everything about caring for and treating hedgehogs in a way that suits the species. We cover important topics such as correct feeding, stress management during treatment and recognising typical hedgehog diseases. Our hedgehog courses are offered both at our hedgehog station and directly at your veterinary practice – we work throughout Switzerland and adapt to your location and your schedule.

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