Bonfire Night 2018: Thermal imaging tech deployed to stop endangered hedgehogs being killed in fires

Katy Clifton1 November 2018

Smartphones with thermal imaging technology are being used to stop hedgehogs being accidentally burnt and killed in fires during Bonfire Night celebrations.

The phone is being used to scan unlit fires for any sign of the endangered animals, which are regularly found hiding or hibernating in piles of wood used for bonfires.

Using built-in thermal imaging technology, the Cat S61 smartphone is able to detect variations in heat, something which enables users to pinpoint where a hedgehog is hidden.

The use of the thermal imaging technology to save nestling hedgehogs in bonfires comes at a time when numbers of the endangered species are rapidly falling.

Thermal imaging technology is being used to save hedgehogs from bonfires
Amy Story

Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said a pile of bonfire material "looks like a five-star hotel to a hedgehog" and welcomed the technology.

She said: “The estimated number of UK hedgehogs have fallen by half in rural areas and by a third in urban ones since 2000.

“With there likely to be fewer than one million hedgehogs left, we need to do all we can to help. Any method of checking bonfire piles for hedgehogs is welcomed and encouraged.

Thermal imaging technology is being used to save hedgehogs
Amy Story

"Ideally the pile should be re-built on a clear site just before lighting and then be lit from one side only to offer an escape route for anything that has been missed.

“Hedgehogs found when checking should be kept safe and secure away from festivities with some meaty cat or dog food and water, then released in the evening once the fire has dampened down.”

Hedgehogs are an endangered species
Amy Story

The Cat S61, made by Reading-based company Bullitt Group, is used by builders and farmers as it is designed for the outdoors.

A spokesman for Bullitt Group said: “We’re continually surprised at the innovative uses people come up with for the phone and clearly anything that can be done to help endangered British wildlife has got to be a good thing."

Calling the Cat S61 a “versatile piece of kit”, the spokesman added: “The phone is also used by farmers to find lost lambs and by people hunting for lost pets”.

Hedgehogs rescued from a bonfire
Amy Story

Tom Sands, producer and director at Substantial Films, captured his friends hunting for hedgehogs nesting in bonfires around Lewes, in East Sussex – an area famed for the biggest bonfires in the country on Guy Fawkes night.

“I’ve loved bonfire night since I was a kid and Lewes builds some of the biggest bonfires in the country,” Mr Sands said.

“For us this is a great fun time of year but it can be a very dangerous time for hedgehogs and other wildlife, as many are accidentally being killed each year.

“I wanted to find a way to raise awareness of this and encourage people to check their bonfires for wildlife before lighting them”

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