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They will be out with torches trying to find, mark and GPS track hedgehogs every evening from Tuesday to test a new method for assessing hedgehog numbers.

Hedgehogs are thought to be declining by about five per cent a year due to a variety of reasons including being hit by road vehicles and loss of suitable habitats.

The University of Brighton has joined forces with Nottingham Trent University to try new ways to determine populations of hedgehogs to help understand the decline. This study is being undertaken in several places throughout the country.

Dr Dawn Scott, Assistant Head of the university’s School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, said: “We will be working with a hedgehog conservation community group in the Hangleton and Knoll area of Hove on the project”.

The researcher’s individually mark hedgehogs and GPS-tag them so their movements can be tracked. They also set cameras in over 100 gardens across the area to be able to find where each individual hedgehog goes.

Her research has featured on BBC’s Winterwatch programmes.

Dr Dawn Scott

In 2012, the university and the RSPCA joined forces to find out how and where hedgehogs lived in winter and to determine their over winter survival rates.

Researchers wanted to find out whether it was better to keep hedgehogs in captivity or release them in the wild. Of the 12 rehabilitated hedgehogs, two could not be found and nine survived. Each hedgehog lost an average one third of their weight but all were in good condition.

Dr Scott said changes in land use in agricultural and urban areas, use of pesticides to reduce prey and road kills all are to blame for the decline in hedgehog numbers.

She said: "The research hopefully will tell us more about their numbers and their behaviour, information that will help us with conservation efforts in the future."