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This project is available for public Spotting but Trapping is restricted. If you would like to join this project as a Trapper please contact us at info@mammalweb.org.
This novel programme will produce robust national population estimates for the much-loved hedgehog.
Despite being the nation’s favourite mammal, there’s a lot more to learn about hedgehog populations across the country. We do know that, although urban populations are faring better than their rural counterparts, overall hedgehogs are declining across Britain, so much so that they’re now categorised as Vulnerable to extinction.
To reverse this trend, we need to understand where and why hedgehogs are struggling and implement appropriate conservation measures. People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), Nottingham Trent University (NTU), the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), MammalWeb and Durham University (DU) have joined forces to pilot a National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP).
The NHMP will produce robust hedgehog population estimates so we can look at regional and habitat differences, and detect changes in hedgehog numbers over time. Working with volunteer partner organisations, we’re deploying a network of cameras at sites across the country. We’ll apply new methods to analyse the images, to estimate how many hedgehogs there are at each site, rather than simply whether they are present or not. But to get to that stage, we need your help to classify all the images!
This is the first time camera trapping has been used to monitor populations at a national scale, so you’ll be directly contributing to this highly ambitious project and to our understanding and conservation of hedgehogs.
These images result from camera trap deployments in public spaces. Whilst every effort has been made to remove any images containing humans, we cannot guarantee that the AI model underlying that process is infallible. Consequently, some images containing humans may be shown for classification. Once these have been manually classified by Spotters as showing humans, they will not be shown again. If you see an image that concerns you, please use the "Flag" button (bottom-right of the image pane) to draw this to our attention.
To find out more about how you can help, please visit the PTES's webpage about the project.
Please note: we are releasing data from different areas in a staggered process, to ensure that some areas get classified rapidly, so that we can test our analytical pipelines. We will make projects (and data) from other areas available as the classification process proceeds. For now, the available areas are listed below.
This project has the following subprojects: