What is the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme?

The National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) is a pilot project designed to generate hedgehog population estimates. Previous surveys show where hedgehog populations are located, but don’t explain how hedgehog populations are performing; whether they are in decline, by how much and where.  

By monitoring the number of hedgehogs in specific areas the survey will show if there is a decline or stabilisation of a population, so measures can be put in place to help. 

The project will look at both regional and habitat differences in hedgehog populations across the country, to understand the factors impacting them and to create effective conservation plans to reverse their decline.   

The NHMP is working with volunteer partner organisations like Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to coordinate surveys in parks, gardens, urban spaces, and rural areas. Regional hubs of volunteers are placing cameras in these spaces, where they will record movement for 30 days. The images will be analysed to help understand how to  help the hedgehog population.

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust joined the NHMP as the Warwickshire Hub and are hoping to repeat the monitoring of sites in 2025.

Would you like to get involved?

We have thousands of images from across the sites that we need help classifying. Everyone can get involved by identifying what has been captured on the cameras through Mammal Web. 

Go to Projects > NHMP > Warwickshire.

Sign up as a spotter

You can also register your interest for 2025 to become a host of a trail camera in your garden or a volunteer as a spotter for classifying the footage. 

Register for 2025 

The project is run by People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, Zoological Society of London, London Hogwatch, MammalWeb, and Durham University, and co-funded by Natural England.

Read more about the programme from the perspective of a resident, volunteer, and trust staff member.

Mike, resident.

Mike is one of the residents who hosted a trail camera in his garden for 30 days. He has made such a big difference with his little bit of garden and re-wilded two thirds of the area. Mike had seen hedgehogs in the garden before, observing two regulars for the past 3 years, so signed up to the NHMP to help estimate the hedgehog population in Leamington.

He has now seen 27 different species of birds in his garden, from goldfinches to starlings.

Mike is also part of a ‘hedgehog highway’ with neighbouring gardens.  These highways create a safe passage for hedgehogs in residential, urban areas and can be created  by putting a small gap at the bottom of a fence to help hedgehogs to freely roam for food, water, and shelter.

Nichola & Linda, volunteers.

Nichola & Linda are volunteers who have been part of the camera deployment in Leamington as well as at Brandon Reach, Coventry, and a farm in Kenilworth.  

Nichola became a volunteer in 2018 at Coombe Abbey, completing hedgehog surveys by tagging them to monitor their movements over the seasons. Hedgehogs use to be a common feature in our landscape, but are now seen less and less, so Nichola wanted to get involved in the programme to understand why and to help.  

She used to foster injured hedgehogs in her local area, and was part of a group who would collect, take care, and then release them into the wild. 

Linda became a volunteer in 2022 with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust’s Survey Force team, who work all over the Trust’s nature reserves in Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull.

She started volunteering on the NHMP this year and attended the training in March for Brandon Reach. This has helped her to understand the hedgehog situation in the local area and what resources they are currently using and what they need to prevent future decline.

Katie, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Staff Member.

Katie is a Wilder Communities Advisor for #TeamWilder. She works alongside the trust’s Geographical Information Systems (GIS) & Data Officer to bring citizen science to communities in Warwickshire.

Katie has been working with the Trust’s Action for Nature Organiser in Leamington to oversee camera deployment and collection schedules with residents and volunteers, analyse the footage, and upload results to Mammal Web.

She is hoping to see lots of hedgehogs in the footage alongside other wildlife like badgers, foxes, deer, and different variety of birds. As a result, Katie hopes when people see this activity in their own gardens, they will be more motivated to make their spaces more wildlife-friendly and create hedgehog highways with their neighbours.

The results

Analysis of the footage has started and there has been a lot of wildlife activity captured. Check out these images of our four-legged friends and find out what else has been seen: