At Dorset Hedgehog Rescue we have been collecting data for a number of years to establish the most common causes for hedgehogs requiring veterinary help or why they need to come into care. We shared our figures with Dorset Mammal Group, who collated information from other participating rescues throughout Dorset.
We have provided information to various bodies, students and others carrying out research into hedgehogs.
One of the programmes we assisted was carried out by Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, hedgehog specialist at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at University of Oxford.
Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen lead a comprehensive and important study on the microbiomes of European hedgehogs in the UK and Denmark, describing the bacterial and fungal communities living inside the hedgehogs. The research was based on faecal samples collected from hedgehogs by volunteers. The project is a collaboration between specialists from Aalborg University in Denmark, University of Sassari in Italy and University of Oxford, UK.
The knowledge gained will eventually help to optimise the treatment of hedgehogs admitted with infections at wildlife rehabilitation centres, improving the opportunity to for the staff to target the treatment, potentially causing a higher survival of diseased hedgehogs admitted into care.
We aim to keep up to date with the latest international scientific hedgehog research. Three of our members attended the International Conference for Hedgehog Rehabilitators at Hartpury Unviersity in January 2024. The full weekend programme included subjects such as hedgehog disease investigations, pesticides and the hedgehog population in Denmark and the national hedgehog monitoring programme. We will aim to send more delegates to any subsequent hedgehog conferences in the future.
