TALKING HEDGEHOG

Those of you familiar with Peter Rabbit might know of author Beatrix Potter's other famous character: Mrs. Tiggywinkle the hedgehog. In England Tiggywinkle has virtually become a national institution, so much so that there's even a hedgehog rescue named after her. So with this in mind, I decided to do some research on hedgehogs and find out more about these fascinating creatures.

First, despite the word "hog" in their name, hedgehogs are not related to pigs. Rather, their closest relatives are shrews and moles, which belong to an order of mammals called insectivores (insect eaters). Hedgehogs, like their insectivorous cousins, mainly eat bugs, though they supplement their diet with worms, snakes, frogs and even fruit. In Italy, hedgehogs sometimes find their way into people's homes, and the owners often let them stay because these animals keep the insect population down.

Hedgehogs are covered with what are called spines. While spines look somewhat like the quills of a porcupine, they do not come off when touched. A hedgehog's spines are also much less sharp than a porcupine's quills. I remember holding a hedgehog at a pet exposition in Toronto. His spines didn't hurt; instead they felt like bristles of a hairbrush being pressed against my hand. When hedgehogs are attacked or feel threatened, they curl up into a ball, from which it's very hard to "open" them.

Female hedgehogs are first able to breed at a year old. After a pregnancy of approximately 34 to 49 days, the mother gives birth to between one and seven babies. The little ones are born blind and (literally) spineless, but their eyes open by ten days, and at four weeks of age they are already accompanying their mother on hunting and food-finding trips. (My dad once saw a mother hedgehog with five babies trailing behind her.) The young hedgehogs stay with their mom until they reach the age of seven weeks and then are ready to live on their own.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals; that is, they are active at night and sleep during the day. According to one site on hedgehogs, females may travel up to one kilometre in a night, males up to three (on the lookout for those cute girl hedgehogs). In colder countries hedgehogs hibernate during the winter, because they can become sick or even die if they burn too much energy at low temperatures. In warmer places, though, they remain active all year or hibernate for a shorter period of time than in more frigid climates.

So the next time you see what looks like a walking bundle of bristles, think hedgehog!

Cool hedgehog website...learn more!

Emily, 17, Canada