Hedgehog conservation

WITH A SPRINGER SPANIEL CALLED HENRY

Text: Amelia Campbell-Horne

It seems as if new developments are popping up everywhere you look across South Africa. Surely, within a few years, most of the remaining free holdings in the suburbs will be complexes, which begs an important question… What will happen to the wild animals that call this habitat their home when the remaining agricultural and natural land is developed?

One such creature that is threatened by habitat loss is the Southern African Hedgehog (Atelerix frontalis). This small mammal is considered to be ‘near threatened’, and their greatest threat before illegal harvesting is habitat destruction. A similar plight has afflicted hedgehogs in the UK. However, in the UK, developers are obliged to search and relocate the wildlife before they can clear a site - a process that is certainly easier said than done.

Locating hedgehogs is particularly challenging. This is because they are nocturnal, so during the day, they will hole up in their nests, and also because they are impeccably camouflaged in long grass and shrubbery, making them difficult to find and relocate. A UK researcher and leading hedgehog conservationist, Dr Lucy BearmanBrown from Hartpury University, suspected that detection dogs might do a more efficient job of finding hedgehogs than any human could so that these hedgehogs could be relocated and kept out of danger.

Lucy teamed up with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, as well as a Springer Spaniel called Henry and his trainer Louise Wilson from the Conservation K9 Consultancy.

DID YOU KNOW?

Humans have approximately six million scent glands in our noses, while dogs have an incredible 300 million.

Detection dogs

Detection or sniffer dogs have been used by humans for a number of years and are well known for their ability to sniff out explosives, drugs, cash, tobacco and live people and cadavers. But that is not where their ability ends, as a dog’s sense of smell is over 10,000 times more sensitive than ours. Henry is one of several dogs from the Conservation K9 Consultancy who are specially trained to sniff out a wide variety of endangered animals. Henry is, however, the only dog in the UK currently trained to find hedgehogs, and he does so without harming or stressing them.

Lucy (and Louise and Henry) carried out their research over a two-year period. The traditional method of hedgehog detection was for a surveyor to go out at night with a spotlight to find the creatures, so Lucy would use this traditional method the first night and mark the hedgehogs with a small tracking device. Henry would then be let out the next night, and Lucy would additionally use more modern technology (thermal cameras) to identify if any had been missed.

The results

They performed this research over summer and winter to determine the efficacy of each method. After completing his training, Henry was able to find significantly more hedgehogs than could be found using a spotlight and identified every single animal that could be seen on the thermal cameras! Henry was also able to cover a considerable area in a short space of time and found hedgehogs in the most unlikely places - even areas that they were thought not to inhabit.

Current work

This winter, he will be testing out his skills again in order to assist with finding hibernating hedgehogs that are impossible to find using a spotlight or thermal imaging, as they are snug in their nests and are able to reduce their body temperature while they hibernate, leaving the modern technology redundant.

Final thoughts

We think this is an exciting initiative that will hopefully play an important part in the future conservation of hedgehogs not only in the UK but also in South Africa! Just to add another ‘aww’ to this story, Henry is also a rescue!

References

https://www.hartpury.ac.uk/university/ research-innovation/ project-case-studies/ training-dogs-forhedgehog-conservation/