World’s oldest European hedgehog found in citizen science project - Oxford University
The world’s oldest scientifically-confirmed European hedgehog has been found in Denmark by a citizen science project involving hundreds of volunteers. The male hedgehog, called Thorvald, lived for 16 years, 7 years longer than the previous record holder.
The European hedgehog is one of our most beloved mammals but populations have declined dramatically in recent years. In the UK, studies indicate that urban populations have fallen by up to 30% and rural populations by at least 50% since the turn of the century. To combat this, researchers and conservationists have launched various projects to monitor hedgehog populations, to inform initiatives to protect hedgehogs in the wild. These include “The Danish Hedgehog Project”, a citizen science project led by Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen (aka ‘Dr Hedgehog’) of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, WildCRU, part of the Department of Biology.
During 2016, The Danish Hedgehog Project asked Danish citizens to collect any dead hedgehogs they found to better understand how long individual Danish hedgehogs typically live for. Over 400 volunteers collected an astonishing 697 dead hedgehogs originating from all over Denmark, with a roughly 50/50 split from urban and rural areas.
The world’s oldest hedgehog
The researchers determined the age of the dead hedgehogs by counting growth lines in thin sections of the hedgehogs’ jawbones, a method similar to counting growth rings in trees. Hedgehog jaw bones show growth lines because calcium metabolism slows down when they hibernate over winter. This causes bone growth to reduce markedly or even stop completely, resulting in growth lines where one line represents one hibernation.
More on:
Posted On: 15/02/2023