News

The National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) is a groundbreaking nationwide research project that is exploring the feasibility of utilising wildlife trail cameras to provide accurate population estimates for elusive (and thus difficult to survey) species, using hedgehogs as a case study. There are only a few sites selected to participate in Warwickshire, and we are extremely proud that our Wellesbourne Innovation Campus is able to contribute to the NHMP.

For the second year in a row, hedgehogs made an appearance on the footage collected by the NHMP cameras at the Innovation Campus, which is excellent news as these shy animals are vulnerable to extinction in the UK.

However, the motion-activated cameras collect information way beyond just the state of hedgehog populations!

They capture all wildlife appearing in front of their lenses, giving us an indication of the biodiversity value of the site to vertebrate species that walk on the ground – and those visiting from the sky.

Moreover, as the cameras are essentially one with the environment, the animals behave naturally as they go about their lives. This results in images capturing stunning, tender or just plain odd moments of the life of wild animals we would not see otherwise.

Last year we had images ranging from a badger family to (very photogenic) hares, from a green woodpecker to a tawny owl. This year we once again had some spectacular photos, including a fox mid-jump while hunting, a close-up of a red kite in flight, a grey squirrel giving its best kangaroo impression, and an encounter between a fox and a hedgehog.

And the best part is? All images are uploaded to MammalWeb as the NHMP relies heavily on volunteers to classify the hundreds of thousands of images collected at each site. With the help of this handy guide, anyone can become a citizen scientist and contribute to this worthwhile project.

(All images are courtesy of © NHMP Warwickshire.)