Many traditional woodland birds are more dependent on hedgerows than ever before.

Hedges provide songbirds such as yellowhammers, cornbuntings, and house sparrows with
a relatively
secure habitat.

Sparrowhawks can frequently be seen either sitting in wait beside hedges, or flying low alongside them.

Robins and wrens will only live in thick and varied hedges.

Hedgerows provide both food and shelter for twenty species of mammal, reptile, and amphibian ranging from frogs, bats, and adders to foxes and badgers.

Of course, one mammal that loves hedges is the Hedgehog, once known as the Hedgepig!

Seven species of bat make their home in a hedgerow. These bats roost during the day in the holes and hollows of mature hedge trees, and feed on the countless insects that hedges attract.

Toads like to hibernate in the leaf litter at the base of hedgerows.

Hedgerows are capable of supporting a wide variety of animals and many species feed on the insects and vegetation that are to be found in hedgerows.

Many species need the physical shelter of hedgerows to move between other fragmented habitats.

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Many hedgerows separating fields from lanes in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Low Countries are estimated to have been in existence for more than seven hundred years, originating in the medieval period. The root word of 'hedge' is much older: it appears in the Old English language, in German (Hecke), and Dutch (haag) to mean 'enclosure', as in the name of the Dutch city The Hague!

The first hedges enclosed land for cereal crops during the Neolithic Age
(4000–6000 years ago).

In parts of Britain, early hedges were destroyed to make way for the manorial open-field system. Many were replaced after the Enclosure Acts, then removed again during modern agricultural intensification, and now many are being replanted for wildlife. Cornwall is rich in historic hedges, with over three-quarters of the hedges seen today being anciently established.

The nineteenth century Great Hedge of India was probably the largest example of a hedge used as a barrier or privacy hedge. It was planted and used to collect taxes by the British.

The Meikleour Beech Hedges, located near Meikleour in Scotland, are noted in the Guinness World Records as the tallest and longest hedge on earth, reaching 30 metres (98 ft) in height and 530 metres (0.33 mi) in length. The beech trees were planted in 1745 by Jean Mercer on the Marquess of Lansdowne's Meikleour estate.