When scientists were trying to figure out whether hedgehogs travel down from the alpine zones of the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand, during the cold winter months, they were faced with the problem of tracking the spiky mammals.
It turned out that the solution was quite simple: just attach a GPS transmitter like a backpack!
"You can attach a transmitter directly to their spines," said Nick Foster of New University of Otago, "There is no collar, no contact with the skin, and there is no feeling in their spines, which are a similar material to our fingernails. Spines regrow after they are clipped and devices fall off as they naturally shed.
The GPS transmitter backpack worked wonderfully and the scientists found out that instead of wandering downhill to lower elevations to escape the cold, the hedgehogs stayed put and hibernated instead.
This hedgehog was found hibernating in the alpine zone during winter
Nick Foster holding a hedgehog in its 'hibernaculum' or the place where it hibernates, in this case, a tightly-wound tussock grass.
Images: University of Otago and Kim Miller