Two Hobbyists, a Hedgehog Rescue, and an Exciting Hedgehog Tracking Project (Project HEDGE) (emf2026)

What began as a simple curiosity about what happens to rehabilitated hedgehogs after release slowly evolved into a long-term wildlife tracking system built from homemade electronics, trial and error, and a surprising amount of night time garden surveillance.

Using RFID tags, cameras, solar power, tiny computers, and increasingly ambitious homemade electronics, the project aims to track the movements and behaviour of rehabilitated hedgehogs after release. The long-term hope is to grow the system into an open-source citizen science platform that other wildlife groups, makers, and curious hackers could build, adapt, and expand themselves.

Expect muddy field deployments, low-power electronics, strange bugs (both software and biological), unexpected toad visitors, occasional spider jump scares, questionable design decisions, and practical lessons learned while building technology that has to survive weather, wildlife, and volunteers armed with screwdrivers.

The data collected is now helping support wider wildlife research and improve understanding of hedgehog rehabilitation and behaviour. Underneath all the electronics, the real goal is simple: gathering better data to help hedgehogs survive and thrive.

Caution: this talk contains dangerously high levels of hedgehog cuteness, surprising wildlife stories, and a few simple ways people can help hedgehogs in their own gardens.

If you enjoy scrappy engineering, open hardware, wildlife, or watching hobby projects escalate dramatically, this talk is for you.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
about this event: https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/209-two-hobbyists-a-hedgehog-rescue