A FIFTH of people never see a hedgehog in their garden, a wildlife survey suggests.

While hedgehogs were seen in two-thirds of gardens at least once in the course of the year, they were spotted regularly in less than a third of gardens – and they were not seen at all in 20 per sent of backyards, the RSPB survey found.

People were more likely to see a non-native grey squirrel than native hedgehogs, with squirrels spotted in almost three-quarters of gardens at least monthly, according to information from hundreds of thousands of people.

For the second year running, the RSPB asked people to tell them about the wildlife they see in their garden through the year, with householders supplying information about 294,550 gardens.

Grey squirrels were the most commonly spotted wildlife but their red squirrel cousins, which have been lost from large parts of the country due to habitat loss and a virus carried by the greys that is fatal to the native reds, were virtually unseen in UK gardens.

Red squirrels were seen at least monthly in only two per cent of gardens, and at least once a year in five per cent of backyards.

But in Scotland they were spotted scampering around regularly during the year in six out of ten gardens, the RSPB said.