Hello, i'm Kathryn. I'm 23 and i am a hedgehog officer for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, i live in the West Midlands UK but border both Shropshire and Staffordshire.

I have a BSc (Hons) degree in Animal Behaviour and Wildlife Conservation where i learned all of my fieldwork techniques and knowledge which turned me to want to passionately help our native wildlife in the UK. Somewhere during Uni, i became utterly obsessed with hedgehogs!

They are struggling so much right now, and it is my pleasure to have such a great job helping them. I dabble in education - doing talks and outdoor activities, communications - social media, radio, any platform to get the word out there!, and the practical side of surveys during the Summer and garden visits to raise awareness. I am currently applying for more funding to continue my role and manage my own hedgehog project called 'Hedgehog Heroes of Shropshire', which has been very successful in its pre-project stage. That is where this training comes in very useful, especially when i divert from my hedgehog focused work in the future to manage other projects!

Some fun facts!

I own my own pet African Pygmy Hedgehog called Bristleback, one devil cat, and 2 little guinea piggies called Asterix and Tiny Tim. I also have a tattoo of real hedgehog footprints on my wrist from when i did some footprint tunnel surveys in my garden! I have visited South Africa and Slovakia during my University travels, and am officially known as the crazy local hedgehog lady - a reputation i have come to adore!

I am excited to meet you all and learn a bunch here!