Biography

Sophie Lund Rasmussen, or Dr Hedgehog, is a Danish zoologist and hedgehog researcher. She is a research fellow at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and Linacre College at Oxford University and is an affiliated researcher at the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Faculty of Engineering and Science Aalborg University. Sophie is also a member of the IUCN SCC Small Mammals Specialist Group.

Sophie graduated as a biologist from the University of Copenhagen (B.Sc. in 2010 and M.Sc. in 2013). She obtained her Ph.D. in hedgehogs from the University of Southern Denmark and Naturama in 2019.

Dr Hedgehog is passionate about her research and has made it her life goal to make a difference for hedgehogs through her hedgehog research and dissemination, ensuring their conservation in nature for generations to come.

She leads the The Danish Hedgehog Project, which was originally her Ph.D. project on hedgehogs. It was apparently the first Ph.D. dissertation on hedgehogs in Danish history. In 2016, Sophie asked the Danes to collect dead hedgehogs for her research so she could use the dead hedgehogs to understand the living, and thus investigate why hedgehogs are disappearing from nature and what we can do to stop this decline.

Sophie Lund Rasmussen's research on hedgehogs covers a wide range of subjects,and has been published in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature.By examining 697 dead hedgehogs,and counting the growth rings in their jawbones, she discovered the world's oldest hedgehog, which was found bitten by a dog. It was a 16-year-old male named Thorvald. She also researches the effect of robotic lawn mowers on hedgehogs,and aims to develop hedgehog friendly robotic lawn mowers through her research, and to create a hedgehog safety test that new models of robotic lawnmowers must pass to be approved for sale in the European market. Read more here.

She began her work with hedgehogs in 2011 while studying biology, volunteering at Animal Protection Denmark's wildlife rehabilitation centre in Roskilde, where she cared for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife, including hedgehogs. This experience inspired her to write her master's thesis in biology on hedgehogs. 

In 2023, Sophie Lund Rasmussen, initiated the conservation campaign Denmark's Hedgehogs in collaboration with WWF World Wildlife Fund Denmark (www.danmarkspindsvin.dk). The campaign includes, among other things, an annual nationwide hedgehog count, which was first held on Saturday, August 12, 2023. Going forward, the count will take place on the second Saturday of August each year. 

Due to her hedgehog research and extensive media outreach (with over 2000 articles and interviews in Danish and international media in 44 countries), she has been given the nickname Dr Hedgehog (or Dr Pindsvin in Danish). 

Sophie Lund Rasmussen actively communicates her research in the media as well as on her Facebook page, X and her YouTube channel Dr HedgehogHer scientific publications can be downloaded and read on ResearchGate, Google Scholar,and here on this page.