National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme Officer

The National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) is a collaboration between PTES, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), Nottingham Trent University, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), London HogWatch, MammalWeb and the University of Durham.

The NHMP Officer will coordinate this nationwide hedgehog survey, which uses citizen scientists, putting out networks of camera traps, and AI models to produce population density estimates of the species and co-occurring mammals.

The NHMP, which has been running for three years, has 15 volunteer hubs across England, Scotland and Wales. In 2025, the volunteer hubs surveyed 53 sites, across a range of habitats. These surveys generated hundreds of thousands of image sequences that were uploaded to MammalWeb, a bespoke online platform hosting camera trap images of mammals from projects across the UK.

The NHMP Officer will be responsible for liaising with and supporting the volunteer hubs, ensuring they have the skills and equipment needed to undertake the field surveys. Tasks will involve engaging and reporting back to the hubs and volunteers and delivering talks to participants and the wider public. The volunteer hubs have received in-person training, but there may be a requirement to visit some hubs to provide refresher training, or to support the establishment of new hubs in areas or regions that have not been surveyed to date.

The role also includes recruiting and engaging ‘Spotters’. These are volunteers who engage with the programme from home, identifying the species in the images. Thousands of volunteers are needed to help spot the species in the image sequences.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Arranging regular Steering Group meetings for project partners
• Liaising with all volunteer hubs to provide equipment, support and advice
• Maintaining an Access database of the equipment (predominantly camera traps)
• Mapping camera trap locations for each survey site and updating these as required.
• Maintaining the NHMP GIS project including camera locations and habitat information.
• Working closely with the ZSL team to ensure oversight of the data pipeline, automation of images and generation of population density estimates
• Working closely with MammalWeb to ensure oversight of developments to engage and support volunteer Spotters
• Recruiting and training volunteers to carry out Spotting on MammalWeb.
• Writing the regular ‘Spotters news’ e-newsletter.
• Producing quarterly reports for project partners, funders and PTES/BHPS boards.
• Working with project partners to identify opportunities for and logistics of data sharing
• Maintaining project pages on the Hedgehog Street and PTES/BHPS websites
• Managing the project budget
• Supporting the Development Officer in producing an application for the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

The NHMP Officer will work at PTES, reporting to the Conservation Research and Strategy Manager. They will work closely with the Development Officer and other members of the Conservation Team.

External Relationships

PTES has a long standing relationship with BHPS. Together we fund and run various hedgehog campaigns, support a wide range of research and run the NHMP. This post will be jointly representing both organisations.

The successful person will also work closely with all other project partners, including volunteer groups and other funding organisations as required.

Person Specification

Essential Knowledge and Experience

• A strong academic background in a conservation related field
• Experience in managing projects with multiple stakeholders to effective delivery of objectives
• Experience of biological data management
• Experience using and managing online and Access databases
• Experience of using QGIS for mapping and analysis.
• Experience of or commitment to learn the Conservation Standards framework
• Interest in and passion for ecology and the conservation of British wildlife

Essential Skills

• Excellent organisational skills with ability to work confidently on own initiative and collaboratively, to manage multiple tasks in parallel, and problem solve
• Ability to build and command the confidence of a project team based at multiple sites working under pressure
• Ability to work with consistent accuracy and attention to detail
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills both verbally and in writing
• Excellent numeracy, data manipulation, an eye for detail and analytical skills
• Self-motivation, a general ‘can do’ cooperative manner
• Professional experience with the collection, collation and analysis of data in the not-for-profit/charity sector
• Commitment to our goals and values and an interest in biodiversity and conservation
• Willingness to travel in the UK

Eligible to live and work in the UK

Desirable Skills

• Valid UK driving licence
• Experience using R

Funding for this work is being generously provided by BHPS.