by Maria C Collins

Created on: November 18, 2009   Last Updated: November 19, 2009

The hedgehog is a prickly little customer. His Latin name is erinaceous and the British hedgehog is the species called erinaceous europaeus or the European hedgehog. It ranges over most of Europe and lives everywhere in the British Isles except for some of the Scottish Islands. Hedgehogs have literary acclaim; Shakespeare mentions them in his plays, A Midsummer's Night's Dream and The Tempest.

The adult hedgehog has between 5,000-7,000 inch long spines covering its back and sides. It is a browny grey colour and has a small tail. It can raise and lower its spines. When frightened or as a defence mechanism it rolls into a ball and sticks its prickles out. The hedgehog is a nocturnal animal and usually emerges at dusk.

The hedgehog does not like to live in wet land or pine forests and is scarce in uplands. It has thrived in England's urban gardens. Hedgehogs eat beetles, caterpillars, worms, slugs and other creepy crawlies in the garden because of this they are known as the gardener's friend. Slug pellets can kill hedgehogs, if you use them do so in such a way that hedgehogs cannot get hold of them and tidy away any dead slugs before evening.

Hedgehogs hibernate in winter. They feed themselves up in the autumn until they have built up layers of fat to sustain them during hibernation. Then they gather together straw, twigs, leaves, bracken and the like and make a nest called hibernacula. They crawl inside and go into a dormant state, chemicals in their brain slow down the body systems until the animal is barely alive, until spring. Hedgehogs may build their nests under or in your shed, or in the pile of garden waste you have stacked ready for an autumn bonfire. Before you light that bonfire do check it for hibernating hedgehogs.

The female hedgehog bears a litter of two to six hoglets, twice a year in early and late summer. Pregnancy lasts for five weeks. Hedgehogs do not usually breed until they are over a year old. Hoglets leave the mother hedgehog and begin their solitary lives at around 7 weeks old.

The hedgehog does not see very well but have very acute senses of hearing and smell. Their life span is 4-5 years.

Please note that in the UK it is illegal to keep a hedgehog as a pet without a special licence issued only to wildlife sanctuaries and like organisations. If you find a hedgehog that needs help either because it is wandering around when it should be hibernating or because you have found baby hedgehogs in Britain contact St Tiggywinkle's wildlife hospital or your local wildlife sanctuary for advice.

The hedgehog has no modern relatives but fossils reveal that there have been hedgehog-like animals on Earth for around fifteen million years.

Beatrix Potter introduced generations of children to hedgehogs in her book about Mrs. Tiggywinkle. That of course was a lovely story but the hedgehog's real life is just as fascinating.

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