Researchers from the University of Cambridge are harnessing satellite data and artificial intelligence to track hedgehog habitats across Britain. With an AI tool called Tessera, they can pinpoint where these prickly residents thrive—or don’t.

The resulting maps offer detailed landscapes, highlighting hedgerows that serve as natural pathways. Combining this with real-time GPS tracking of some hoggy adventurers, the project aims to understand specific barriers hedgehogs face in their daily lives.

Prof Silviu Petrovan hopes these insights will help protect the UK's only native species of hedgehog, whose numbers have plummeted by 75% in rural areas since 2000. But some experts warn about the environmental impact of such tech-heavy conservation efforts.

To achieve this, Tessera was trained on a staggering 20 petabytes of data—equivalent to 10 billion photos. This massive dataset allowed researchers to develop easy-to-use maps from complex satellite imagery, enabling them to ask specific questions about our land cover and use.

While the project focuses on hedgehogs, Tessera’s applications extend far beyond these spiky stars. More than 100 research groups have already accessed it for monitoring crops and farmland. So, next time you see a satellite image, perhaps it might just show a digi-hog or two.