A new project – the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) – that aims to map the UK’s hedgehog population and understand the reasons behind its decline has been announced. It’s a partnership between a number of different organisations, including the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Durham University.
In light of this, I would like to take readers back to a fantastic speech made by Rory Stewart in 2015 to the House of Commons, that pays homage to the hedgehog. Stewart identified a “strange decline in British civilisation:” he laments that the hedgehog – once revered in mythology as a “magical, mystical, terrifying creature” – is now known to most of us thanks to such endearing characters as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, or through stories of sticky ends on our motorways.
Whilst Stewart’s speech is partly a hedgehog adulation, its purpose is to argue against the adoption of this creature as the UK’s national symbol – do we want “an animal which, when confronted with danger, rolls over into a little ball” to represent us? He does, however, make the point that hedgehogs are a species that must, on no account, be overlooked in other contexts.
Hedgehogs are a generalist species which means they’re a good indicator of the state of an ecosystem’s health. Interestingly, numbers are thought to have declined more in rural areas than urban ones over the last few decades. This, surely, is a sign that the rolling hills of our “green and pleasant land” are an illusion.
Conservation projects, I believe, are the ultimate symbol of the need for human cooperation. Borders are artificial: the Anglo-Scottish one, for example, clearly means nothing to a hedgehog. So, if we are serious about reversing the decline of such species, then collaborative efforts such as the NHMP must be mirrored elsewhere.
The NHMP is also notable for its plans to use Artificial Intelligence. AI software will scan through huge volumes of video to remove anything containing humans and then, volunteers will examine what remains to estimate populations.
Innovation and collaboration should be the future of conservation. Whilst Stewart’s argument that the “majestic, courageous and proud” lion is a more worthy national symbol than the hedgehog still holds its ground, these small mammals are nevertheless a species that deserve our attention.
“A Hedgehog’s Back” by Denis Defreyne is licensed under CC BY 2.0.