Liverpool research project studies personality of urban hedgehogs as numbers stabilise
Katie Crawford is a PHD student at John Moores University. Her research is essentially looking at hibernation behaviour of hedgehogs across urban areas. As part of her analysis, she's using data collected by members of the public, this includes my own parents who've been welcoming hedgehogs into their garden for the past few years.
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00:00 At the moment I was going out on a golf course with a big light and just looking around,
00:05 so having sort of them pinpointed for me will be really helpful to my research, saved me
00:10 a lot of time.
00:12 Katie Crawford is a PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University.
00:16 Her research is essentially looking at hibernation behaviour of hedgehogs across urban areas.
00:22 So it will mainly be focusing on hibernation, but I'm also going to be looking at sort of
00:26 stress responses and personality in hedgehogs, maybe hypothesising that in more urban areas
00:32 they're a bit more bold.
00:34 Obviously they have a lot more to contend with.
00:36 As part of her analysis she's been using data collected by members of the public.
00:41 This includes my very own parents, who've been welcoming hedgehogs into their garden
00:45 for the past few years.
00:47 The footage you're seeing here has been captured by a motion sensitive camera my dad set up
00:53 in their back garden, right here in Liverpool.
00:56 And I think this research will be really, really important to not just hedgehogs, but
01:02 to a lot of species because, you know, there's a lot of grey areas in what we're, in how
01:09 different species are reacting to urbanisation.
01:13 And there's a lot of unknowns at the moment and it would be great to have sort of something
01:16 to see if there is an impact, which I'm sure there is.
01:20 Hedgehogs love gardens.
01:21 Unfortunately, there are around half a million hectares of garden in the UK.
01:26 Katie is encouraging anyone who sees a hog to log the sighting online at the Big Hedgehog
01:32 Map.
01:33 So the most recent research was showing that they are not doing so well in rural areas,
01:38 but their population is stabilising, if not increasing in urban areas.
01:42 So they're obviously adapting very well to what we're bringing.
01:45 I think a lot of people are very keen on hedgehogs like your parents.
01:48 They put out food for them.
01:49 There's a lot of different factors, I think, that are affecting hedgehogs at the moment
01:53 and we don't actually have a population estimate for hedgehogs really, a very good one.
01:59 Hopefully, we'll get a better population estimate in the near future.
02:03 Efforts to help the UK's hedgehog population are set to get a major boost from a unique
02:08 project combining citizen scientists and artificial intelligence at Liverpool John Moores University.
02:14 The new National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme will use trail cameras to gather data on hedgehogs
02:18 at sites including parks, gardens, woodlands and farmland.
02:22 The huge number of images mean a special AI algorithm developed at the university will
02:27 be used to take out any that don't have wildlife in them.
02:30 Data from the project will provide the first reliable estimate of the UK's hedgehog population
02:35 and allow conservationists to work out how best to help the much-loved mammals.
02:41 You know, they're interacting with each other a lot more often.
02:43 They're interacting with other animals, other people.
02:46 So, yeah, we'll see if that hypothesis is correct.
02:49 But, yeah, I'm going to be looking at sort of their stress hormones as well, seeing if
02:54 there's difference in stress levels in hedgehogs in urban areas.