Animals
Where are hedgehogs and moles? Citizens should help researchers
The aim is, among other things, to determine reliable figures on hedgehog populations across the board for the first time. photo
© Armin Weigel/dpa
Citizens as nature watchers: In a participation campaign, people all over Germany are called upon to observe and report hedgehogs and moles.
Researchers want to know more about hedgehogs and Find out moles in Germany. Citizens are therefore called upon to take photos of encounters with the two species of insectivores between this Friday and September 24th and upload them to an online platform.
The address: https://nabu-naturgucker.de/igel. The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin announced this at the start of Germany-wide monitoring. Animals that have had an accident should also be reported. When it comes to the mole, the documentation is rich in hills.
The aim is to determine reliable figures on hedgehog and mole populations across the board for the first time. Effective measures to protect animals should be developed on this basis. “As far as the information available so far suggests, populations of both species are declining in Germany,” the institute said. It is assumed that this has to do with the decline in insects, increasing drought and a lack of food. The animals are also exposed to deadly dangers such as cars, electrical garden tools and poisons.
According to the statement, the model for citizen participation in hedgehog monitoring is Great Britain, where hedgehogs have been monitored in this way for more than 20 years. In the German project, two annual action periods are planned in the future, in May and September. There are already similar projects in this country for other animal groups such as birds and insects.