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Late night volunteering to capture hedgehogs on film

23 October 2014

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Yusuf Akhtar is a young London based photographer and film-maker who is particularly keen on wildlife and the natural world. He kindly donated his time and skills to document our Hedgehog Research Project in The Regent's Park in film. We think he's got a great career ahead of him - thanks Yusuf! Here's his blog and the film he made!

It all started with an email in April from Hedgehog Street calling for people to volunteer on a hedgehog research project in the heart of London. When I received this email I was immediately excited at the prospect of volunteering and finally seeing my first hedgehog, and even more excited because I didn’t have to travel to somewhere more rural, it was in my home city, London!

I immediately got in contact and not too long after I was on the tube heading to Regents Park for my first volunteering session. For the first few days we focused on setting up footprint tunnels. After a few days of setting up and collecting footprint tunnels I was keen to go out on the night radio tracking and spotlighting sessions. I also at this point offered to make a film for the charity, the Royal Parks Foundation, about the project and their efforts to conserve London’s Hedgehogs.

About a week later the “night shifts” began and to my excitement on the first night, shortly after getting a little bit lost I came across John (one of the two scientists involved in the project) with a team of volunteers who had found and tagged a hedgehog! I promptly switched on my camera and infrared lights and filmed the hedgehog as they released it... 

For the next few weeks I was in the Regent's Park on many occasions and we saw more and more hedgehogs, as well as meeting the people involved. This is what I captured on film!

Watch the film

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