Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 5, 2025

Setup of Consumer Wearable Devices for Exposure and Health Monitoring in Population Studies
Published on: February 3, 2023
COVID-19 lockdown measures impacted citizen science hedgehog observation numbers in Bavaria, Germany
Fabio S T Sweet1, Thomas Rödl2, Wolfgang W Weisser1
1Terrestrial Ecology Research Group Department of Life Science Systems School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Freising Germany.
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary changes in human-animal interactions due to changes in human activities. Here, we report on a surge in hedgehog observations during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany in 2020, on the citizen science Web portal "Igel in Bayern" (Hedgehogs in Bavaria) in Germany. This increase in comparison with previous years was attributed to an increase in the number of people reporting hedgehog observations, rather than an increase in the number of hedgehog observations made by each observer. Additionally, in contrast to other studies on the effects of a COVID-19 lockdown on observations recorded by citizen science projects, the share of observations made in more urbanized areas during the lockdown time was not higher than the change observed in less urbanized areas. This is possibly a result of the differences in COVID-19 measures between Germany and other countries where preceding studies were carried out, in particular the lack of measures limiting traveling outdoor activities for citizens.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Declining Populations
Threats to Biodiversity
Naturalistic Observations
Habitat Fragmentation

