Abstract
Simple SummaryThe European hedgehog is one of the most popular and well-known wild animals, but its numbers are declining throughout Europe, especially in rural areas. Effective hedgehog conservation requires an understanding of the hedgehog’s ability to adapt to a changing environment. Due to globally increasing urbanisation, the use of artificial light sources to illuminate the night, called light pollution, has spread dramatically. Light pollution significantly affects the behaviour and ecology of wildlife, but the hedgehog’s behaviour towards light pollution remains unknown. We therefore investigated the effects of light pollution on the natural movement behaviour of hedgehogs living in an urban environment. Although hedgehogs can react very variably to environmental influences, the majority of hedgehogs studied here preferred to move in less illuminated rather than in strongly illuminated areas. This apparently rigid behaviour could be used in applied hedgehog conservation to connect isolated hedgehog populations or to safely guide the animals around places dangerous for them via dark corridors that are attractive for hedgehogs.With urban areas growing worldwide comes an increase in artificial light at night (ALAN), causing a significant impact on wildlife behaviour and its ecological relationships. The effects of ALAN on nocturnal and protected European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are unknown but their identification is important for sustainable species conservation and management. In a pilot study, we investigated the influence of ALAN on the natural movement behaviour of 22 hedgehogs (nine females, 13 males) in urban environments. Over the course of four years, we equipped hedgehogs at three different study locations in Berlin with biologgers to record their behaviour for several weeks. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) tags to monitor their spatial behaviour, very high-frequency (VHF) loggers to locate their nests during daytime, and accelerometers to distinguish between active and passive behaviours. We compared the mean light intensity of the locations recorded when the hedgehogs were active with the mean light intensity of simulated locations randomly distributed in the individual’s home range. We were able to show that the ALAN intensity of the hedgehogs’ habitations was significantly lower compared to the simulated values, regardless of the animal’s sex. This ALAN-related avoidance in the movement behaviour can be used for applied hedgehog conservation.
Highlights
The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a solitary, hibernating, nocturnal insectivore that is one of the most popular and well-known wild species
We estimated this threshold individually for each hedgehog using the summed standard deviations of the acceleration data. This acceleration threshold is expected to separate active and passive behaviours [45]. Locations recorded during this potential active phase of the hedgehogs for which acceleration values dropped below ACC_thres were assigned to the GPS_pas dataset as well, as the hedgehog was considered immobile and we aimed to investigate movement behaviour
Movements were tracked for most animals at least 21 days per individual, except for three animals (TR_08_2016, TR_09_2016 and TP_30_2018)
Summary
The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a solitary, hibernating, nocturnal insectivore that is one of the most popular and well-known wild species. Recent studies show that population densities of hedgehogs in cities and suburbs are higher than those in the countryside [1,2,3]. Long-term monitoring studies found that the overall hedgehog population in various countries is declining, in some places dramatically [4]. In Germany, only two long-term monitoring studies on a very local scale exist, showing similar decreases to those in the UK [6,7], and concerns about the decline in hedgehogs have been expressed in other European countries [1,8,9]. Due to increasing fragmentation and decreasing density of hedgehog populations, the danger of the formation of island populations and inbreeding is already being discussed [15,16,17,18]
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