by Sammy Stein

Created on: March 18, 2009

Hedgehogs are amazing animals - closely related to elephants surprisingly and they are an important part of our native fauna. In the UK it is illegal to keep a hedgehog as a pet unless you are a registered keeper and home those animals that are disabled or the victims of accidents.

Hedghogs have many interesting habits. Firslty, rather than a territory, they defend a 'track' which is a circuitous route which they patrol each night, wandering off to feed - mainly on small insects, fruit occasionally and most things edible- but always returning to their track. This is why, if you suspect a hedghog comes through your garden, it is important to keep the access open for them.

If hedghogs meet, they head butt each other to prove which is the stronger hedgehog. This avoids fights and makes sure that larger hogs have larger tracks to patrol, as they will see off smaller interlopers. Groups of hedghogs will perform a 'dance' if they meet , which consits of elabrate routes around each other and subtle grumblings to establish who is top hog. Then, as quicly as the dance starts, each hog returns to its own track.

Baby hedghogs are born without spines but they have spine 'nubs' which are small raised fleshy bits from which the spines emerge and harden within two hours of birth.

A birth, a hoglet will have all the skin it will ever have. At its rear end, the skin is baggy enabling the mother hog to carry the young. As the hog grows it fills this loose skin until it reaches full size. Hedgehog mothers are attentive and lead their babies out each night to feed but once they are ready to leave the maternal care, she simply takes them on a new route and abandons them. They then have to find and establish their own tracks.

Although nocturnal, hedgehogs have little night vision, which is unusual. So, they can fall, trip or injure themselves on obstacles placed in their tracks. They can swim but for a short time only and if they go into a pond, they need an easy exit route.

One amazing thing hedghogs regularly do is self annoint. This is theprocess when a hog will find something they like - it differs from hog to hog and some like leather, orange peel, mouldy meat or some other smelly thing. They then salivate, chew the object and rub the saliva all over themselves to perfume their spines. This is a habit of nearly all hedghogs and quite why they do it is not known.

Hedghogs can curl into a tight ball and hold this position with little effort due to the fact that rather than muscles along

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