5 research outputs found
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Supporting evidence-based conservation for hedgehogs in urban areas: the importance of residential gardens and householder actions
Urban-dwelling wildlife face a wide range of challenges including, but not limited to, habitat
loss, habitat fragmentation and the mortality risks associated with roads, domestic animals
and human activities. Nonetheless, urban areas can provide critical refuge for a range of
species, including some of conservation concern; detailed knowledge of how these species
persist in human-modified landscapes is necessary for the development of sound
conservation strategies.
The West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a small (<1.5kg), nocturnal,
hibernating mammal that has declined markedly in Britain over recent decades most
prominently within rural landscapes, and is nowadays more commonly found within urban
habitats, including in residential gardens. Consequently, householders are urged by
conservation groups to make their gardens more âhedgehog friendlyâ by, for example,
increasing accessibility through garden boundaries, providing artificial refugia and/or giving
supplemental food. Current understanding of garden use by hedgehogs, the extent to which
such âhedgehog-friendlyâ initiatives have been adopted by householders and their subsequent
impacts is, however, limited. Therefore, the current study aimed to quantify key factors
relating to habitat use by urban hedgehogs and conservation actions within gardens.
First, 28 hedgehogs were radio/GPS tracked in a residential area in Reading, UK, and the data
were used in combination with GIS and householder-supplied information to quantify habitat
selection, the number of gardens visited and factors affecting the extent of individual garden
use. Second, hedgehog occupancy in gardens during a hibernation period was monitored
using footprint tunnels and assessed against within- and outside-garden variables. Finally,
two online questionnaire surveys were undertaken to explore (i) factors affecting the use of
artificial refuges (nest boxes) in gardens, and (ii) householder engagement with the
âhedgehog highwaysâ campaign which aims to increase connectivity between gardens;
collectively, >10,000 responses were received from householders in the UK.
Overall, it is evident that householders have the capacity to positively influence hedgehog
activity patterns in gardens via the provision of key resources such as food and nesting
opportunities, but that other biotic and abiotic factors also play a role. However, householder
engagement with some conservation activities can be strongly impacted by, e.g., the need to
coordinate with neighbours. Future studies are therefore needed to identify mechanisms to
overcome such impediments to maximise the number of participating households.
Fundamentally, future research needs to focus on quantifying the impacts, potentially both
positive and negative, of conservation activities on hedgehog populations
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What makes a house a home? Nest box use by West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is influenced by nest box placement, resource provisioning and site-based factors
Artificial refuges provided by householders and/or conservation practitioners potentially represent one mechanism for mitigating declines in the availability of natural nest sites used for resting, breeding and hibernating in urban areas. The effectiveness of such refuges for different species is, however, not always known. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of UK householders to identify factors associated with the use of ground-level nest boxes for West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), a species of conservation concern. Overall, the percentage of boxes used at least once varied with season and type of use: summer day nesting (35.5â81.3%), breeding (7.2â28.2%), winter day nesting (20.1â66.5%) and hibernation (21.7â58.6%). The length of time the box had been deployed, the availability of artificial food and front garden to back garden access significantly increased the likelihood that a nest box had been used for all four nesting types, whereas other factors related to placement within the garden (e.g., in a sheltered location, on hardstanding such as paving, distance from the house) and resource provisioning (bedding) affected only some nesting behaviours. The factors most strongly associated with nest box use were the provisioning of food and bedding. These data suggest, therefore, that householders can adopt simple practices to increase the likelihood of their nest box being used. However, one significant limitation evident within these data is that, for welfare reasons, householders do not routinely monitor whether their box has been used. Consequently, future studies need to adopt strategies which enable householders to monitor their boxes continuously. Ultimately, such studies should compare the survival rates and reproductive success of hedgehogs within artificial refuges versus more natural nest sites, and whether these are affected by, for example, the impact of nest box design and placement on predation risk and internal microclimate
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An assessment of a conservation strategy to increase garden connectivity for hedgehogs that requires cooperation between immediate neighbours: a barrier too far?
Urban areas are associated with high levels of habitat fragmentation. For some terrestrial species with limited climbing abilities, property boundaries can pose a significant problem by limiting access to residential gardens. The West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) has declined markedly in the UK but is commonly found in areas of human habitation, including residential gardens. âHedgehog Streetâ is a public engagement campaign aimed at recruiting volunteers (âHedgehog Championsâ) to create access points (âhedgehog highwaysâ) across garden boundaries to improve habitat connectivity. In this study, we used a series of questionnaire surveys to explore motivations for and obstacles to the creation of highways. Householders were more likely to have created a highway if they were already aware of the Hedgehog Street campaign, if their garden contained a high number of wildlife-friendly features and if they considered watching wildlife to be important. Hedgehog Champions created, on average, 1.69 highways each with 52.0% creating none; this would equate to an estimated >120,000 across all registered Champions. In comparison, 6.1â29.8% of non-Champions stated that they had made a highway. However, most highways had been created in boundaries that could already be traversed via naturally occurring holes: only 11.4% of garden boundaries could be traversed, and 3.2% of gardens accessed, just via a hedgehog highway. In addition, only 5.0% of gardens were considered totally inaccessible to hedgehogs. The most common reasons cited for not having made a highway were that householdersâ gardens were already accessible to hedgehogs followed by concerns relating to boundary ownership and / or communicating with neighbours. Future studies need to identify strategies for overcoming these obstacles to maximize citizen engagement, particularly with those householders who are not innately âwildlife-friendlyâ, and to quantify the degree to which networks of highways affect patterns of individual movement and, ultimately, populations
Application of the Random Encounter Model in citizen science projects to monitor animal densities
Abundance and density are vital metrics for assessing a speciesâ conservation status and for developing effective management strategies. Remote-sensing cameras are being used increasingly as part of citizen science projects to monitor wildlife, but current methodologies to monitor densities pose challenges when animals are not individually recognizable. We investigated the use of camera traps and the Random Encounter Model (REM) for estimating the density of West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) within a citizen science framework. We evaluated the use of a simplified version of the REM in terms of the parametersâ estimation (averaged vs. survey-specific) and assessed its potential application as part of a large-scale, long-term citizen science project. We compared averaged REM estimates to those obtained via spatial captureârecapture (SCR) using data from nocturnal spotlight surveys. There was a high degree of concordance in REM-derived density estimates from averaged parameters versus those derived from survey-specific parameters. Averaged REM density estimates were also comparable to those produced by SCR at eight out of nine sites; hedgehog density was 7.5 times higher in urban (32.3 kmâ2) versus rural (4.3 km2) sites. Power analyses indicated that the averaged REM approach would be able to detect a 25% change in hedgehog density in both habitats with >90% power. Furthermore, despite the high start-up costs associated with the REM method, it would be cost-effective in the long term. The averaged REM approach is a promising solution to the challenge of large-scale and long-term species monitoring. We suggest including the REM as part of a citizen science monitoring project, where participants collect data and researchers verify and implement the required analysis