What a lot has happened in such a short time … The International Conference for Hedgehog Rehabilitators that took place over the weekend at Hartpury University was a storming success.
Organised by Dr Lucy Bearman Brown, Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Dorthe Madsen and, Dyrenes Beskyttelse - around 200 people - from eleven countries - gathered for two intense days of information exchange. This would be an EXTREMELY long update if was to go into all that happened. So over the next few updates I will drip-feed you some of the highlights!
The purpose of the gathering was to bring together hedgehog rehabilitators, conservationists and ecologists. It might seem self-evident that these folk would be well networked, but the reality has been rather different. There have been times when the ecologists seemed a little remote from the conservationists - those that are studying the hedgehog with an academic eye rather than with a view to the protection of the animal. I think through the work of the Hedgehog Street campaign we have managed to bridge that gap.
But the carers - well - some of them know what they know and treat the academic interest with suspicion. I have been told that ecologists should not bother doing more research but just talk to a particular carer as they know everything there is to know about hedgehogs. The trouble is that pretty much every carer I have talked to has a different way of doing things!!
What Lucy, Sophie, Dorthe and Dyrenes have done is bring all these people together in the spirit of sharing and cooperation and most importantly - made sure that everyone felt heard. There was no hierarchy. New ideas were open to being challenged. It was a real testament to the organisers and the attendees that the event went so well.
Okay - I will start with the first session - three talks on Saturday morning.
Dr Nigel Reeve is one of the pioneers of hedgehog ecological research - someone I admire for his rigorous approach to work, and also rather like as a friend! He talked from his position as a trustee of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society - who were helping make the conference happen. It was good to be reminded of the origins of the society and to have the breadth of work shared.
Next up was my colleague Grace Johnson - she is the Hedgehog Officer from Hedgehog Street - and someone I have also grown very fond of over the years of working together. She was talking about something I am not a part of - the development of a National Conservation Strategy for Hedgehogs in Britain. This has been a lengthy process of bringing together many friends of the hedgehog - carers, ecologists and researchers - much like a very concentrated, distilled version of the conference in fact - to work out what are the most critical areas we need to work on to help hedgehogs.
This is important as it can be that the most obvious may not necessarily be the most important - then into the mix has to be added what is achievable … so the most important may not be the most doable … it is an ongoing process and when the final report is ready I will share it here.
Before the first coffee break, Paulina Malgorzata Pawlikowska talked about the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme - which is something I have been following with growing excitement for sometime. How many hedgehogs are there in Britain?? We don’t know! It is the most important thing we need to know if we are to be able to assess conservation needs and the outcomes of our work. But we have known for decades that it is a VERY challenging question …
Then along came some clever statisticians who put together the Random Encounter Model - a method which involves randomly placing a number of camera traps across a survey site during a suitable survey period in order to capture images of a minimum number of individuals of the target species.
It does NOT need to know the identify of individual hedgehogs … and this blows my mind rather. I did ask one of the project leads a while back how it actually works and he replied that after all the camera data is collected we do some ‘statistical jiggery-pokery’ and then get the answer. When I have full understood how it works, I will share with you all!!
And then it was coffee … the buzz in the building was amazing - so many people re-meeting old friends - making new contacts - seeing people in person for the first time in an age of zoom calls - it was a delight to see. I was able to sit back and watch as I had a stall of books to sell - mine and some from Pat Morris too.
So much more to come - including my Saturday night turn on stage - as I delivered a rather unscientific half an hour of hedgehog silliness!!
Right - before I go - last week I was interviewed by my friend Yang-May Ooi for her brand new podcast, MetroWild … I was first up - and having listened to what I said (I really was not paying attention at the time!) I think she has captured a fairly good insight into the inner workings of my brain! Have a listen here.
Any spare change …