Ultrasound repellers could keep hedgehogs off roads, scientists hope
Study shows animals hear very high frequencies, making it possible to design a deterrent to cut deaths Patrick Barkham Wed 11 Mar 2026 07.00 CET Prefer the Guardian on Google
Hedgehogs have been discovered to hear high-frequency ultrasound, raising hopes that they could be deterred from dangerous roads with ultrasound repellers.
Vehicles are estimated to kill up to one in three hedgehogs, a big factor in the much-loved mammal’s drastic decline across Europe over recent decades.
Researchers at the University of Oxford collaborated with colleagues in Denmark to test the auditory brainstem response of 20 hedgehogs rehabilitated in Danish wildlife rescue centres. Small electrodes placed on the animals recorded electrical signals travelling between the inner ear and the brain, while short bursts of sounds were played through a loudspeaker.
Reducing vehicle traffic would be far better than blasting an alarm out to the entirety of nature.
This is calling for more tech waste to litter our countryside. More consumption to feed the capitalist machine. More shit to buy.
You ever hang about a train station that has one of those illegal frequency emitters to prevent teenagers loitering as a kid? Fuck that being deployed all over the place for the entirety of wildlife capable of hearing at this frequency to suffer.
This is going to affect wildlife other than hedgehogs.
I prefer the fix of putting wildlife-bridges over roads, so the animals can get across THEIR ancestral-territory safely, than using electronics to bully them into not using their natural-range completely.
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