AI helping hedgehogs.

AI seems to be linked to just about everything at the moment, but occasionally its use can be positive.

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

It cannot have escaped the attention of the UK’s population that one of our most loved animals, the hedgehog, has been having a tough time recently. The decline of around 30% over the past decade is thought to be due to a number of factors, including habitat loss (where have we heard that before?), intensive farming, pesticide use, loss of hedgerows, and habitat fragmentation.

In an effort to tackle the problem, Cambridge University have been trialling a new system to help not only track the hedgehogs but also to survey their habitat. The aim is to use the data to better inform developers when it comes to planning applications, and to also get a more accurate idea of the number of hedgehogs we still have. The analysis of the data gathered from the satellite tracking is done using AI systems, using a system called Tessera to determine the best habitats and the impact of recent developments on the ground.

Prof Silviu Petrovan, strategy and research manager at People’s Trust for Endangered Species, said in a recent interview that he is optimistic that AI can help protect the tiny mammals.

“What we’re really hoping is that we can use these really powerful models to understand, for instance, what are the very specific barriers for hedgehogs to find food and find their mates, and be able to safely move around the countryside?”

The more data we have, the more we can hopefully do to halt the decline of these ever-popular animals (an image of which could be appearing on a banknote in your pocket in the near future). But as is often the case, the use of AI technology has been called into question given the need to funnel huge amounts of energy into data centres to run these systems, plus the equally large amount of water needed to cool them. The impact of both requirements on the environment surrounding the data centres cannot be ignored.

Despite these negatives, there also seems to be a hidden positive to the use of AI in wildlife monitoring, as it may encourage more people, often younger people, to develop an interest in wildlife. It seems to tap into their willingness to use a smartphone to identify bird songs, wildflowers, butterflies, and insects. The fact that more people are engaging with the natural world has to be a positive; what they are using to fuel that interest, and how it is powered, is more debatable.

But when it comes to hedgehogs, one of the largest contributors to the sharp decline appears to be deaths on our roads. We don’t need AI to tell us that it is thought that some 350,000 are killed on our roads each year. A staggering number. In an effort to reduce these figures, Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen have conducted research showing that hedgehogs can hear up to a staggering 86 kHz, well above what we can hear. Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit/Department of Biology, University of Oxford and University of Copenhagen said, in a recent interview: “It’s my ambition to eventually have these repellers built into all new cars.”

Whether these would work, or just frighten hedgehogs already in the road, causing them to stop and roll into a ball rather than run away from the cars, remains to be seen. Even if it does work, it could be a major undertaking to get car manufacturers to fit these as a matter of course. Until we know more, all we can and should do is maintain hedgehog highways in our gardens, feed them with appropriate hedgehog food and provide clean water and, if possible, somewhere to nest during the cold winter months.