Keeping tabs prickly friends

Hedgehogs are to be tagged with radio transmitters so conservationists and students can monitor their movements.

Students at Nottingham Trent University’s Bracken-hurst campus will be tagging families of the creatures in the Southwell area.

Dr Richard Yarnell, a senior lecturer, said: “Recent surveys have suggested that there has been a sharp decline in hedgehogs and particularly ones in this area.

“What we want to do is firstly find out whether this is true and secondly, if it is true, why it’s happening.”

Dr Yarnell said road traffic and agricultural intensification were the two main reasons likely to explain the decline.

Two students, Miss Zoe Mitsis, who is studying wildlife conservation, and Miss Rachel Ford, who is studying bio-diversity surveying, used the radio transmitting tracking device to monitor a male and female hedgehog earlier this year.

They are writing dissertations on the behaviour of hedgehogs.

“The results accumulated from this experiment suggested that the male hedgehog travels a lot further than the female,” Dr Yarnell said.

The transmitters will be stuck on the hedgehog’s spines with super glue. They will be removed after about six months.

The hedgehogs will also have a reflective tag so they can be found more easily.

“Our preliminary results suggest the transmitter and the tag have no negative side effects on the hedgehogs’ behaviour,” Dr Yarnell said.

Hedgehogs are now in hibernation and the tagging project will start in spring.

Dr Yarnell hoped to monitor at least ten hedgehogs on land surrounding the Brackenhurst campus. They would also like to hear about families of hedgehogs in Southwell and surrounding villages.

Students can locate a hedgehog’s position by holding an aerial over their heads and following the strength of a radio signal.

Dr Yarnell said the cost of the tracking equipment was about £1,000.