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Today we take for granted our concern for the hedgehog. Everyone loves hedgehogs and most of us are worried at the massive decline in numbers we are seeing. For example, there are nearly 40,000 people signed up to , the campaign to open up gardens for their benefit.

Hugh Warwick

During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a bounty introduced for each hedgehog killed

But our relationship with this wonderful animal was not always so warm-hearted. During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a bounty introduced for each hedgehog killed and they were often considered a creature portent in stories. The Brothers’ Grimm had seriously adult themes attached to the hedgehog and some folklore associated them with doom and disaster.

All this changed in 1905 – and from that moment on, pretty much all stories have the hedgehog as at least benign, if not the loveable feature. I have two shelves on my bookcase dedicated just to hedgehog stories and not one of them has a bad word to say about them.

And what happened in 1905? The publication of a book about a hedgehog, now so well know: Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

If it were not for the staggeringly discriminatory times in which she lived, it is possible that Beatrix Potter would have never written this, and the other 22 tales for which she is so famous. A brilliant observer of nature, artist and scientist, this woman could have been recognised as a thinker in the league of Charles Darwin had she been born a man.

And if we had not had that change in our view of the hedgehog, launched by the unlikely washerwoman, would there now be such a clamour to get something done to stop them slipping into the world of memory? I do not know. The PR job she did for hedgehogs was magnificent.

It is a sad comment on society that we tend to only seek to protect that with which we are immediately connected. We are seduced into thinking we have a connection with pandas and great whales because of the amazing publicity they get from campaign organisations. If we were to deconstruct the hedgehog – smelly, anti-social, nocturnal, spine-covered and reputed to be (though not actually) flea-ridden it would be considered an animal hard to love. But Beatrix Potter managed to sprinkle some magic over the hedgehog, transforming it into the irresistible companion of our gardens.

So as we celebrate the 150th birthday of this remarkable woman, take a moment to think of what she has managed to achieve above and beyond making millions of people around the world happy with her beautiful books. She has helped shift our perception of the hedgehog, make it now the charismatic icon of the country, and catalyse a conservation movement that helps not just the hedgehog but so much more garden wildlife besides.

Hugh Warwick is an ecologist and author with a particular fondness for hedgehogs. www.urchin.info