23/01/2026
Why confident AI advice is putting vulnerable wildlife at risk
by Dr Claire Hart, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Southampton (and co-runner of Hamble Hedgehogs rescue)
By day, I’m an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southampton, researching among other things how digital technologies shape human behaviour, trust and wellbeing. By night, I help run a volunteer wildlife rescue. Increasingly, these two worlds are colliding .... and not in ways that are helping animals. I co-run Hamble Hedgehogs, a small hedgehog rescue on England’s south coast. Like many rescues, we care for injured or unwell animals brought to us by well-meaning members of the public. And more often, we are seeing the consequences of people following confident but incorrect online advice, including advice generated by AI tools.
This matters because hedgehogs are in serious trouble. The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is now listed as vulnerable to extinction in Britain, following decades of decline (British Hedgehog Preservation Society). Fewer than one million hedgehogs are thought to remain in the UK, and since 2000 populations have fallen by around 30% in urban areas and up to 75% in rural areas, according to The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report (BHPS & PTES, 2022). Against that backdrop, even small, well-intentioned mistakes can have life-or-death consequences.
Old myths, new megaphones:
Wildlife rescues have been trying to dispel hedgehog myths for decades, yet some of the most damaging advice still circulates widely online.
Bread and milk are still commonly offered to hedgehogs, even though this advice is actively harmful. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and consuming milk can cause severe diarrhoea, dehydration and, in some cases, death if untreated. Bread is similarly unsuitable: it fills the stomach while providing little nutritional value, preventing hedgehogs from eating the food they actually need.
Another increasingly common mistake is feeding mealworms. Often marketed as a “natural” or protein-rich treat, mealworms are strongly discouraged by wildlife rescuers. Experienced rehabilitators warn that mealworms are nutritionally unbalanced and can contribute to serious health problems, including metabolic bone disease, which causes pain, weakness and fractures and can be fatal. Hedgehogs may readily eat mealworms, but preference does not equal suitability.
Diet myths extend further. Hedgehogs are often described as helpful garden “pest controllers” that eat large numbers of slugs. In reality, slugs form only a small part of a hedgehog’s natural diet and are nutritionally poor. More importantly, slugs are a common intermediate host for lungworm, a parasite that can cause serious, and often fatal illness in hedgehogs.
Yet advice encouraging these foods continues to circulate widely online and is frequently reproduced by AI tools as harmless, natural guidance. In rescue work, we regularly see the consequences of these myths play out in real animals.
Daytime hedgehogs and dangerous reassurance:
Another widespread misconception concerns hedgehogs seen during the day. There are a few rare exceptions, such as nesting or nursing mothers, but in most cases, a hedgehog out in daylight is in trouble. Out in the day is NOT okay. It may be ill, injured, dehydrated, underweight or hypothermic. In rescue work, daytime sightings are treated as urgent.
Unfortunately, some current AI-generated advice reassures people to leave hedgehogs alone if they “look healthy”. This guidance is wrong and extremely dangerous. You cannot reliably assess a hedgehog’s health just by looking at it. Following that advice can mean leaving an animal to suffer, or die, unseen.
When bad information looks authoritative:
Part of the problem is that even sources labelled as “hedgehog advice” are not always reliable. Some websites and social media pages that appear dedicated to hedgehogs circulate misleading or incomplete information — from recommending unsuitable foods, to selling poorly designed “hedgehog houses” that offer little insulation or protection (For good advice, see Hedgehog Street).
Images also matter. Hedgehogs are often shown out during the day, presented as charming or normal behaviour, when daytime activity usually signals serious distress. Other posts illustrate advice using African pygmy hedgehogs, a domesticated species commonly kept as pets, rather than the wild European hedgehogs found in UK gardens. To a non-expert, these distinctions are easy to miss, but they are crucial for welfare.
AI systems draw heavily on this mixed and often unvetted information environment. When they summarise “what the internet says about hedgehogs”, they flatten important differences between pet and wild animals, between safe and unsafe practices, and between evidence-based guidance and well-meaning but flawed content. The result is advice that sounds knowledgeable but quietly reproduces mistakes.
Why delays are so dangerous:
At this time of year, the overwhelming majority of hedgehogs found out during the day are sick or in danger. Across the UK, rescues are seeing heart-breaking cases where animals arrive too late to save — often after hours or days of delay following online reassurance that intervention was unnecessary.
What actually helps wildlife:
If you see a hedgehog out in daylight, the safest response is simple:
• Do not leave it where it is.
• Place it in a high-sided box with a towel and a covered hot-water bottle to provide warmth.
• Contact a local wildlife rescue immediately for advice.
• Avoid delays — time is often critical.
AI tools can still be useful, for example, to help locate a nearby rescue or find official guidance from reputable conservation organisations. But they should not be used to decide whether an animal needs help.
As AI becomes more embedded in everyday life, we need to be honest about its limits. Confident answers are not the same as correct ones and when it comes to wildlife already facing steep population declines, accuracy and speed can mean the difference between life and death.
Hedgehogs don’t need more well-meaning guesses. They need timely, informed help and that means ensuring accurate advice travels as far and as fast as misinformation now does.
