Going the whole hog!
Could you have a hedgehog in your garden?
Everyone knows that at The Biggest Twitch we're passionate about birds. But we're fascinated by mammals too, and there is one particular species that we've noticed is getting even harder to see these days: the hedgehog. So when our great friend Becky Clews-Roberts, Project Officer for the Mammal Monitoring Network Wales at The Mammal Society asked us if we'd be interested in finding out more about how these wonderful little characters are doing in Wales, of course we jumped at the chance.
Hedgehog, copyright The Mammal Society, photo by Derek Crawley
Here's what Becky has to say about it:
"An exciting new project has come to Wales courtesy of The Mammal Society and Natural Resources Wales.
The Mammal Monitoring Network (MaMoNet) Wales project aims to encourage people to monitor two species in particular - hedgehog and harvest mouse.
In the case of hedgehog, it is thought that numbers have declined by 50% over the last 25 years (JNCC) and unless some action is taken soon, this creature that plays such an important part in the eco-system may continue to decline.
Very little is known about the harvest mouse population in Wales so we hope to assign volunteers to a 1km2 tetrad in order to search for them.
Harvest Mouse, copyright The Mammal Society, photo by Derek Crawley
However, at the moment, Project Officer Becky Clews-Roberts is recruiting volunteers to place a footprint tunnel in their garden or elsewhere with landowner permission.
The tunnels are to be baited (hot dogs no less!) and left against a linear route such as a hedge, overnight. Next day, collect the paper to see what prints have been left behind on the paper from the ink pad underneath!
Hedgehog footprint tunnel, copyright The Mammal Society, photo by Derek Crawley
The ask is that you either purchase a footprint tunnel from The Mammal Society website (they cost £9.95+p&p) or make your own. The link to the page is here along with Assembly Instructions which can be used to make your own:
http://www.mammal.org.uk/node/66We then ask for all records to be submitted online on the Mammal Society Atlas:
http://www.mammal.org.uk/nmap which will give us the bigger picture once data has been analysed and enable us to develop a conservation strategy for hedgehog in Wales.
For further information contact Becky on
r.clews-roberts@themammalsociety.org or just go ahead and place your tunnel!"
In case of any ID worries, this one's a hot dog!
So there you go, it's as simple as that! The perfect excuse for getting in some hot dogs (Becky doesn't specify but hedgehogs probably prefer them without mustard and ketchup!) and finding out whether you've got hedgehogs in your garden at the same time. So go on, what are you waiting for ?!