OWLS THE CHILDREN'S NATURE CHARITY

                                   Hedgehog

 

Description

Hedgehogs are small mammals. They are brown and covered in spikes. They have four legs and a short tail. They have a triangular (cone) shaped face with small eyes and flat ears.

 

Habitat

Hedgehogs like to live along hedges or bushes. These are perfect for them because hedgehogs are nocturnal. This means they are active at night and sleep during the day. A hedge is a good hiding place for them to sleep safely during the day.

 

Diet

Hedgehogs are insectivores. This means they eat insects.

They eat all kinds of insects like earwigs, beetles, worms and slugs.

 

Young

A baby hedgehog is called a hoglet. A mother hedgehog gives birth to between 2 and 6 hoglets at a time. This happens mostly during June and July. A young hoglet will stay with its mother for about 2 months learning how to find food before going off to find their own homes.

 

Predators

Hedgehogs spikes (spines) protect against most predators. If a hedgehog is scared it rolls into a ball and sticks out its spines.

Hunters like stoats and foxes will usually give up trying to eat a hedgehog if it gets spiked in the nose.

Badgers are a predator of the hedgehog as they can use their strong claws to get the hedgehog out of its ball shape and eat it from its soft belly.

A big killer of the hedgehog is cars on the road.

 

Fun Facts

Hedgehogs hiberbate during the winter. This means they are asleep in their nest (home) for several months during the cold winter.

They survive without eating because they have fuel from their fat that has built up over the summer.