The International Hedgehog Registry (IHR) was founded in 1997, with the goals of tracking pet hedgehogs to reduce inbreeding and to track behavioral and genetic traits. The registry made impressive strides, registering several thousand hedgehogs in its first three years of existence. Unfortunately, the registry founder was not able to maintain the growing registry at the level that it required, and fell behind. It was sold in 2001, but similar problems befell the new owner. In April of 2002, the IHR was sold to the International Hedgehog Association (IHA).
The IHA has big plans for the registry! The goals of the registry were reviewed and the new mission statement for the IHA is:
1) To preserve and improve the quality of the species, and to keep track of the progress of our efforts.
2) To improve knowledge of inherited traits, toward the goal of eliminating
those characteristics that have a negative impact on hedgehog longevity and
health and increasing those traits that enhance the species.
3) To track the demographics and distribution of pet hedgehogs.
4) To connect hedgehog owners and breeders with one another, to the enhancement of the hedgehog community.
In order to better track records, it was determined that new software was required. The IHA is currently working on the customization of a pedigree program for the IHR that will enable us to easily print pedigree forms and mark records for specific traits that are being tracked. Unfortunately, this development will take some time, so new registrations are on hold until the software is completed.
The new software will require a transfer of information from the old files to the new. It was discovered that many of the entries in the original database are grossly incomplete, so a call for registration confirmations will be made when the new software is up and running. Having more complete records will help us to better track inherited characteristics.
Pairing the IHR with the IHA will allow for better dissemination of information. The IHR can help the IHA track trends in health, breeding, and ownership that may need to be addressed by IHA research and development projects or by public education.
The registry will allow registrants to specify whether they breed hedgehogs and whether they are willing to be contacted by other hedgehog owners in their area. This will allow the IHR to provide a database of hedgehog-knowledgeable and hedgehog-interested people so that they can connect with one another. We hope that this will lead to greater communication in the hedgehog community, as well as the development of local and regional clubs.
For all of these reasons, we are very excited about the IHR! The new IHR website is currently under construction at
http://hedgehogregistry.org. This is the place to check back for new information as it comes available. Once the new program is completed, registrations will be able to be completed online or by mail. We will also make an update form available on the web page, so that entries can be easily updated. We are very excited about taking on this new project, and we hope you will be, too!
- Tig
