Hedgehog
(Erinaceus europaeus)
The European hedgehog is a familiar species of gardens and the countryside but its UK numbers have declined severely in the last 20 years. Scientists estimate that there are fewer than a million left.
Hedgehogs can be spotted in gardens at dusk, but unfortunately people more often see them dead on the road.
They are nocturnal, and one of the few British mammals to hibernate. They build themselves winter nests (or hibernacula) and sleep in them until spring. Young hedgehogs are called hoglets.
Fascinating fact:
The average adult hedgehog has between 5000 and 7000 spines (which in fact are modified hairs) and one small tail.
Hedgehogs live on a diet mainly made up of insects, as do like shrews and moles. They are notoriously noisy eaters so you might hear them at dinner time. Their menu is varied but they mostly eat earthworms, beetles, slugs and the like. They will also take eggs of ground-nesting birds, and the pet food people put out for them is a useful “extra” to their diet. Leaving water out for them is also a good idea, particularly when it is hot.
The hedgehog famously rolls itself into a ball to protect itself from predators. The badger is its biggest animal enemy but humans affect it too by running it over in their cars or fencing off their gardens so it cannot move around.
Hedgehogs are known as gardeners’ friends because they eat slugs. If you would like to help them in return, put small holes in your garden fences so they can come and go as they please, set aside a small area where they can nest in winter, and avoid putting down poisonous slug pellets.
Did you know
Hedgehogs tend to have “rounds” of several gardens which they will visit at night to feed, so the animal you like to think of as “your hedgehog” is probably several different individuals popping round at different times.