NHMP Cameras in Oxfordshire
27th May 2025
By Kori Malia, Hedgehog Intern
4 April, 2025: Camera Deployment
Today, a team including NHMP Co-ordinator Dr Henrietta Pringle, researchers from The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and I deployed cameras at a woodland site in Oxfordshire.
This camera deployment was a collaboration between the NHMP and a ZSL team who are studying grey squirrel disease risk and transmission. The National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) is going into its final year of the pilot phase. After the pilot, we hope to expand to an established annual monitoring programme. We’re looking into the possibilities of using this valuable protocol to monitor not just hedgehogs, but also other species.
During the day, we split off into groups to put out 30 cameras in specific locations. We calibrated these cameras using stripey poles. I tried to incorporate some dance moves into the calibration process!
We will leave the cameras at the woodland site for 30 days. These cameras will operate continuously throughout this period, capturing images of any animal that enters the field of view. After the 30 days, we will collect the cameras and upload the wildlife images to MammalWeb.
Hopefully we will get some incredible images from the camera traps!
A bit about the NHMP
We know that European Hedgehogs are Vulnerable to extinction in the UK. However, the true scale of hedgehog decline is unknown, due to uncertainty around population numbers. We need to know hedgehog abundance. That’s where the NHMP comes in.
The NHMP is a pilot 3-year programme run by Peoples Trust for Endangered Species and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society, in partnership with, ZSL, Nottingham Trent University, Durham University and MammalWeb. The pilot is funded by Natural England, with the support of JNCC.
The NHMP deploys cameras at sites across the UK, in a range of habitats, and uses a method called the Random Encounter Model to estimate population density from the images. The programme will, for the first time, produce robust hedgehog population estimates that will allow us to look at regional and habitat differences, and detect changes in hedgehog numbers over time.
13 May, 2025: Camera Collection
Today, we returned to the woodland to collect the cameras that we put out in April. At some of the locations, after we collected the NHMP cameras, we set up baited boxes so the ZSL team could monitor parasite-carrying smaller mammals.
It’s warmer than last month, and the bluebells are in bloom. And now that the cameras are collected, we can start uploading the images to MammalWeb.
We need to know what species are in the photos, so we rely on volunteers called ‘Spotters’ to help us identify what animals are pictured. This helps us to know which pictures to analyse. It’s good fun, and you never know what cool species will show up, so have a look!
Henrietta’s reflection on the collaboration:
“The NHMP is an innovative new project that will arm us with the information we need to help hedgehogs. By knowing where hedgehogs are struggling, we can more effectively target conservation measures. It’s always exciting putting out cameras at a new site, as you never know what you might discover. Collaborating with the ZSL team shows us how we can use NHMP methods to answer different research questions about all sorts of species.”
