Negotiations by the £50 billion High Speed 2 rail line to acquire a new lorry depot have turned prickly.
HS2 wants to acquire a car park at London Zoo but needs to move a resident population of 11 hedgehogs.
According to The Mail on Sunday, the zoo’s ecologists have objected to the relocation and asked for a meeting.
Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, told the newspaper: “We support any calls to protect the area they’re in from HS2 developments because that’s going to impact on that population, which may not be able to re-populate after any work has been done. The best possible solution is for the hedgehogs not to be disturbed at all.”
An HS2 spokesman said: “Nothing has been decided.” It also dismissed a report suggesting that it was seeking a new chairman, saying an error had led a Cabinet Office newsletter to say wrongly that the role would be advertised.