Where do NZ's hedgehogs go when winter is coming?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-07-17 03:00

New Zealand

PHOTO: Christiane S Hartl/Unsplash

A research team tracked five female hedgehogs living in New Zealand’s alpine zones to see exactly where they went when the temperatures plummeted. Not only did all five hedgies stay put at the higher altitudes rather than head down the mountain, two of them reared critters above 1,600m and several showed signs of having gone into hibernation. The small sample size means they can’t assume all alpine-residing hedgehogs are also year-round residents, but it does appear at least some are. The team says these findings mean future eradication programmes will have to take all hedgehog habitats into account.

Media release

From:

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The New Zealand Ecological Society, Web page

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Journal of Ecology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Otago, Department of Conservation, King Juan Carlos University, Spain; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

Funder: Predator Free 2050 Ltd., Te Manahuna Aoraki Project, and a University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship awarded to NF.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.