It might come as a surprise to some of you - but there are loads of people doing research into hedgehogs across Europe. And every couple of years we gather and share what we have learned.
This year the European Hedgehog Research Group met in London (last time it was Berlin which was a delightful treat as I got to stay with my brother and his kids) and over 60 wonderfully eccentric, deeply committed and rather brilliant researchers came to talk, network and learn.
Appropriately, it was hosted by the Royal Parks - who also have been key in the work, reported on at the conference, to understand how hedgehogs are managing to live in Regent's Park - the last Royal Park to host hedgehogs. It was worrying to hear that hedgehogs had been predated within London Zoo ... I had images of naive bundle of prickles climbing in with the lions - but interestingly, it seems that foxes were the culprit.
Pat Morris was the obvious choice to open proceedings - he started studying hedgehogs back in the 1960s and still remains one of the leading authorities. He made the very good point that despite all the work we do - we do not have good data for total population. One group of scientists estimated that it was between 730,000 and 12,000,000 - which is essentially useless! Others have put the figure very much at the lower end - but this reveals how far we are from a real number.
I won't go into each and everyone of the 22 talks as that would take far longer than you (or I) have got! But some highlights along the way -
like these two short films - the dots are the hedgehogs, and this is data from GPS tags - it is amazing to watch the hedgehogs as they move through the environment. Urban hedgehogs - Rural hedgehogs
National Hedgehog Survey showed that where you have more than 5 badger setts per kilometre square you rarely find hedgehogs - but to put this down as a badger problem is to miss the point ... we have transformed their shared environment into something unsustainable.
I was excitedly waiting for the esoteric Random Encounter Method to be explained to me (this is a way of getting an estimate of a population using trail cameras) and was told it was down to 'statistical jiggery-pokery' - which did not help!
Great to see North Ronaldsay getting some attention - that is where I started doing hedgehog work over 30 years ago!
Switzerland has an amazing citizen science project up and running and this is something that will be happening here soon as well! The Czech Republic is where our hedgehog meets the Eastern European hedgehog ... a species I have yet to meet ... and excitingly that is where the next EHRG conference will be held!
Some superb news for hedgehog rehabilitators - there is now good evidence that you do NOT need to keep hogs in captivity all winter, they can be released in mild spells ... but read the paper to get the protocol right.
Sophie Lund Rasmussen from Denmark managed to get volunteers to collect 697 dead hedgehogs one year, which she has been analysing. Over 500 were roadkill - but the most interesting bits are coming from the research into the state of their health before death.
The Netherlands now has a Dutch Hedgehog Working Group and they are about to make an exciting announcement ... but I can't say what it is yet. Their founder, Merel Klaamond, talked about endoparasites ... she has spent hours and hours examining hedgehog poo. Not all this work is glamorous!
Without research we will not be able to help hedgehogs. We must remember that science is based around the understanding that what we think, could be wrong - and this is important as there are many 'experts' out there with vast amounts of experience who are unwilling to accept this. The meeting was a superb reminder of the need to be humble. We are learning all the time. So long live science! And thank you weather for being absurdly kind ... though it has given rather a false idea to many of our visitors of what a February in London is usually like!
And, as ever, please share the petition ... I know that some of our European friends have been helping!