WWF Just Set Up A 24/7 Hedgehog Live Stream

WWF Finland has launched its first-ever round-the-clock hedgehog live stream, training cameras on a prickle of hedgehogs living in a residential backyard in the town of Luumäki in eastern Finland, and the broadcast is scheduled to run until the end of June. It is the first time that WWF's ongoing nature live stream series has featured hedgehogs, and the choice of subject is deliberate: conservation group WWF wants the world to know that the hedgehog, an animal most people associate with gardens, fairy tales, and good fortune, is quietly becoming a threatened species across much of Europe. The International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified the hedgehog's threat status from Least Concern to Near Threatened in 2024, with researchers pointing to human activity and environmental pressure as the primary causes. In the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and Austria, hedgehog populations have dropped by as much as half in recent years.

WWF development manager Justus Hyvärinen said the choice to film in a home backyard rather than a nature reserve was intentional, designed to remind viewers that the most meaningful conservation steps they can take are often just outside their own doors. Hedgehogs thrive in residential gardens when people leave leaf piles for shelter, avoid pesticides, and put out food in the evenings, and Hyvärinen noted that the stream will show food being set out at dusk to draw the animals out before birds eat the supply first. The best food for hedgehogs, he added, is dry cat food, especially varieties that contain insects. For most of the day the camera will show an empty bowl and a quiet garden, but that, Hyvärinen said, is part of the point: the stream is a reminder that hedgehogs are still out there, moving through ordinary neighborhoods just as they always have, and that what happens in one backyard can make a real difference to whether they stay.

Source:https://yle.fi/a/74-20227963