Wildlife cameras
20th May 2020
Updated April 2024
By James
from NatureSpy
Camera traps have been around for decades, but in the last 10 years have become more accessible and more powerful – offering an easy way to get a glimpse into the long nights of hedgehog activity. Batteries can last months and they can go anywhere you need them to in order to follow your hedgehog around the garden.
One of the most common questions we get asked at NatureSpy every day is ‘what camera is best for hedgehogs?’. There are a few tried and tested hedgehog camera traps that we love to recommend; there’s a rundown coming below. We’ll also let you know some insider tips to get the best out of the cameras so you don’t miss a moment of the nightly drama.
1. WiFi WildCam 2
Designed with hedgehog watching in mind, and a little different to a standard trail camera, the WildCam 2 is a wifi wildlife camera that allows you to watch live, view playback, and change settings remotely from your phone. All you need is for the camera itself to have a WiFi connection. It has built-in memory and a rechargeable battery aswell.
It’s got a strong antenna so works well in gardens too. You can pop it by bowls, inside hedgehog feeding stations, or by gaps in the fence and get a ping when a spiky visitor passes by. One of our favourite features is the option to have either black and white (IR) or colour night footage, at the tap of a button on the app.
2. Browning Strike Force Pro X 1080
The previous version of this camera was extremely popular for hedgehog-watching – used by enthusiasts and researchers alike (including London HogWatch). It’s a really good all-rounder – reacts quickly, doesn’t over-expose images, has a forward-facing colour screen, really good on batteries – it ticks the boxes for a reliable hedgehog-watcher!
3. Ursus Trail Camera
A more affordable option to the Strike Force is the Ursus. Again, designed very much with British wildlife in mind, it gives really good quality footage and has all the features you’d expect. Unlike many other wildlife cameras, it also allows you to use rechargeable AA batteries – a more environmentally-friendly way to watch the hedgehogs!
4. Browning Recon Force Elite HP5
The last one on the list – and the top-dog if you’re after the highest quality video you can get. The night vision is great, it can run on rechargeable batteries, and the video day and night is top notch. We send this camera to wildlife production companies working around the world – there is a good chance you’ve seen footage from this camera on the telly! So if you want to see every spike, this is a good option.
It’s worth noting that we don’t generally recommend the cheaper, often Chinese designed cameras that all look pretty much identical and say they can do absolutely everything you’ve ever wanted. They are essentially cheap for a reason; we get about 20-30 calls and emails every week from those that have tried them and ultimately they’ve failed.
How to get the most out of your wildlife camera
So once you’ve got the kit, what next? Here are a few quick tips for hitting the ground ‘snuffling’ with hedgehogs….
Positioning
Because hedgehogs are small and not especially fast (most of the time), it means that they’re harder to spot for camera traps. Good camera positioning makes a big difference here – if you put your camera 15 ft up a tree looking down through branches at a hedgehog house, don’t expect much to be caught – the camera just won’t be able to detect the hedgehogs very easily.
However, if you can get your camera about 20-30cm off the ground looking straight along to where you expect the hedgehogs to be then you can get really reliable results consistently. Basically – don’t put the camera too high as it’ll just be looking over the top of the hedgehog!
Batteries
We talk about batteries all week at NatureSpy… there are so many different types available and they vary a lot. A camera trap is only as good as its batteries – if you use lower quality ones, don’t be surprised if you don’t get many captures.
We recommend Lithium batteries most as they have the most power, last the longest and don’t care about the cold temperature overnight.
If you want to use rechargeable, then Panasonic Eneloop Pro are the way to go but bear in mind that they have a lower voltage so it means they make the camera a little less sensitive.
Settings
All the cameras above have a sensitivity setting. It almost goes without saying that if your camera has this, you want it set to the highest option to ensure that no hogs are missed. If you find you get too many triggers or false positives, you can always turn it down after.
Getting the right piece of kit and the setup right means that you can quickly start gathering not only great clips of the nightly spiked dramas on your patch, but also invaluable data on our prickly friends. As more people start to monitor the wildlife in their garden, this data can provide a really valuable insight into hedgehog happens across the UK.
NatureSpy is a non-profit organisation focused on wildlife conservation, engagement and research projects. UK experts in camera trapping, they’re part-funded through their online shop and run projects across the UK and Europe focused on anything from pine martens to European wolves.
