Okay - the next dose of recap from the amazing International Conference for Hedgehog Rehabilitators. If you did not see the first of these, have a look here.
After coffee we returned to the rather warm lecture theatre (thank you Lucy for chasing the maintenance team to sort out the air conditioning … windows would not open and I worried we would be slipping into slumber before too long!)
First up was Kate Davies, a PhD student from Nottingham Trent University. She has embarked on a fascinating and, I would argue, very important deep dive into the legislation that surrounds rehabilitation across Europe. When I was in the Netherlands in 2019 I had rehabilitators aghast that there was no licensing requirements for hedgehog hospitals in the UK.
It is an interesting conundrum though - while I think it would be VERY good to have some sort of way to control the quality of rescue work that is being done - some sort of best practice that everyone should follow - there are practical problems. Would it put smaller rehabbers out of ‘business’? How would we pay for someone to check the quality? What do we consider to be best practice in the first place?
There is a lot for us to learn from how other countries have tackled this … I will be watching her work with interest.
Next was the wonderful Anne Berger from Leibniz-Institut für Zoo - und Wildtierforschung (IZW) im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., Germany. I have really enjoyed other presentations of her work - and was lucky enough to hear her speak at the European hedgehog Research Group conference in Berlin a few years ago.
She was talking about data - information - and how rescuers can collect really important data about the hedgehogs they take into care - and how that can be used in conservation and population modelling.
Phil Baker, from Reading University, came on stage wearing a t-shirt that read, ‘Don’t believe everything you think.’ This was deliberately provocative. Phil is a really good and thorough scientist - and he reminded us all that just because we have opinions about things, they may not be correct - and we should always be open to being proved wrong. This is, after all, the essence of science.
He was looking at how hedgehog admissions to wildlife hospitals have fluctuated over time. It is tempting to leap to conclusions from the data. But, do more hedgehogs arriving at the hospitals mean there are more sick and injured hedgehogs? Or more hedgehogs in the wild? Or more people aware of the need to take hedgehogs into a hospital thanks to the press and social media? Again, there is so much more to learn.
Lunch was a buffet of sandwiches, which I noticed people tended to eat very fast - because there were so many interesting people to talk to! My stall was certainly non-stop with people wanting to talk about their experiences - and even (wow, my ego was massaged) wanting to have selfies taken!!!!
Last bit for now - after lunch was one of the most important parts of the conference … the introduction of the Hedgehog Database. This is something that Lucy Bearman Brown and Sophie Lund Rasmussen have been developing. We got to experience the nearly finished version - through the magic of QR codes and smart phones. The aim is to create an easy to use system that allows hedgehog rehabilitators to input data about who they have found. Currently there are almost as many systems as carers - with many still relying on pieces of cardboard attached to cages.
The reason researchers are trying to create a more formal system is in large part to enable them to try and learn from what it reveals … as I mentioned before - it is tricky to piece together what the numbers mean. But it will also, hopefully, help make the lives of carers easier too.
Now - it is completely understood that there are rescuers out there who do not use computers and will continue to use analogue means - but the more that can share their data the better. Getting an idea of how many hedgehogs are taken into care each year, for example, would really helpful. It is remarkable that this is an unknown. A paper that Lucy published in 2022 suggested that it could be in excess of 40,000. Now - if there are (this is a guess just to illustrate the point) 400,000 hedgehogs in the UK … that would mean 10% were being treated. That is a very significant proportion!
The workshop was really useful and Lucy was provided with vast amounts of feedback - I look forward to seeing the completed version in action!
Now - if you feel like your head is spinning from all this hedgehoggery - imagine how we felt grabbing a coffee and seeing that there were still seven talks to go before supper!
As ever, if you want to find out more from the contents of my brain, there is twitter and instagram (where I have one of my favourite photos just up - not of hedgehogs, which is why I did not use it here - but of three swans) - and if you have spare change - my hat is here!