Diet

The hedgehog eats relatively much and spends at least 5-6 hours a day foraging. Concerning meat, it eats practically anything it can find and catch. It feeds mainly on insects (including poisonous ones), worms (mostly earthworms) and molluscs. It also eats rough woodlouses, centipedes, spiders. Occasionally catches an amphibian, reptile (predominantly gastropods). It also eats broods of ground-nesting birds, small mice. The hedgehog does not refuse to eat dead animals. Plant food is a minor food item: it includes a variety of juicy fruits, seeds, green parts of plants and even mosses and mushrooms. Foraging for food relies mainly on a well-developed sense of smell and hearing, also touch. When eating, it usually makes a characteristic rustling noise. It licks itself after eating.

Habitat

It makes its home almost anywhere – where conditions are favourable for its life - in dry, food-rich areas with suitable wintering sites: deciduous and mixed forests (often in small woods, woodlands), groves, more or less overgrown and undergrown meadows, scrub, gardens, parks and greenery. Hedgehogs cannot be found in swamps and large, old, continuous forests.

Important and interesting facts

The largest insectivore in Latvia. Active only during the warm season, it spends the winter in close hibernation (curled up, immersed in a real, deep sleep) in a well-prepared burrow carefully made of dry grass, fine twigs, leaves and moss. The hibernation usually starts in October or, less frequently, in early November (the winter mists descend when the air temperature no longer exceeds +10 degrees). The organism feeds on reserves of subcutaneous fat accumulated in autumn. In Latvia, the awakening period usually occurs in April (rarely as early as the end of March).

In case of danger, they usually roll in a ball instead of running away. The hedgehog is protected from attackers by 7,000 insensitive spines. Spines are hollow hairs made stiff with keratin. When the hedgehog is calm, spines in its skin are held at an angle, but when the hedgehog rolls into a ball to protect itself from attackers, the spines stick out upright. But if the hedgehog does decide to escape, it will run at speeds of up to 9 km/h (compared to an average human walking speed of 4-6 km/h).

Hedgehogs are not keen swimmers, but reasonably good if needed. They remember well and regularly visit places where they are fed. They are active mainly at dusk and in the dark. The most serious enemies are owls, animals belonging the Mustelidae (e.g., badgers), wild boars and dogs. Careless vehicle drivers and old grass burners are also bad for hedgehogs.

In ancient Rome, hedgehog fur was used to comb sheep's wool. In children's books, hedgehogs are often depicted with an apple or a mushroom on their backs, which is not true: hedgehogs do not carry food on their spines. Hedgehogs are not apple eaters or mushroom pickers and consumers. Baby hedgehogs are born blind and without spines. People like feeding hedgehogs with milk. However, the milk will give the hedgehog a stomach-ache and diarrhoea. If you want to feed a hedgehog, it is better to offer lean beef (not salted, dried or otherwise processed, of course), fish or cat pellets. But remember not to get too excited about feeding, as the food we offer is not the hedgehog's daily meal. The southern white-breasted hedgehog never digs dens. Hedgehogs are not relatives of the porcupine.

Information sources: latvijasdaba.lv, Wikipedia

Photo: redzet.eu