Hedgehogs!

Are there many hedgehogs in northern part of Sweden? YES! YES! YES!

We are living in Umeå, around 650 km north of Stockholm. Temperatures during winters here can drop down to minus 35-40°C. But in the summer it is a hedgehog paradise. Sometimes it is possible to meet several of them just during one evening walk. But you need to know where to look and how to find them. Our living area is situated close to the forest, protect besides, in the summer it is never really dark up north! Usually, in the end of August I am starting to put out some food to help them in preparation for the winter sleep. They are really great eaters. This gives me opportunity to meet them every evening. This is like some kind of addiction!

Click on a photo if you would like to read a hedgehog story!!!

Hedgehog (in Latin Erinaceus sp.) - is a small ball of more than 7000 spines, four legs and a small tail. It's favorite habitats are edges of forests, gardens and parks. They are active during evenings and nights, resting between five in the morning and eight in the evening. Hedgehogs are rather lonely creatures, and they are easily starting fights with each other. Their life span is from six to ten years.

Senses: their sight and hearing are rather good but the smell is excellent. His nose is always wet. Even a worm hidden 3 cm under the ground will not be safe from a hedgehog.

Appetite: Huge. Especially welcome by passionate gardeners. Hedgehog food includes: worms, insects (bees and spiders), snakes and mice. In critical situations also berries. The hedgehog with the same appetite will consume both, fresh and a bit unfresh food.

Physical strength: crawling (through VERY narrow places); walking (up to 3 km per night); running (quite fast); swimming (through rivers and streams)

Enemies: foxes; dogs; badgers; birds (magpie, crow, jackdaw, owls); and CARS....

Defence mechanism: Quick muscle contraction to make a spiky ball. A hedgehog can stay like that for a long time until he feels the danger is gone.

Sicknesses: pneumonia; blindness; diarrhea; coughing; cancer; stress; muscle cramps

Warning
Hedgehogs like many other animals are in the danger of extinction caused by a constant decrease of their living places like bushes and hedges and intensive traffic.

Click on a photo if you would like to read a hedgehog story!!

One year with the hedgehog

Spring: Hedgehogs are waking up from the winter sleep (hibernation), when the temperature raises to around +10°C. They are VERY thirsty, and desperately try to find something to drink. Milk given at that time can even cause their death. More than on searching for food they are concentrated on searching for the love partner. It can take several hours of running around a female before the male is admitted. His role ends up here. Female is searching for a safe and calm place for the nest for her and small hoglets, which are born around 30 days after.

Hoglets:: Can be born twice a year, covered by 100 spines, blind during their first two weeks of life. They are fed by mother's milk for 4 to 8 weeks. Afterwards their mother is showing how to find food. After two months the hedgehog mother stops caring for her hoglets and let them live on their own. Around 90 % of hoglets will not survive their first year....

Summer: Hoglets and mature hedgehogs are gaining in weight. Average meal consists of more than 40 grams of food.

Autumn: Hedgehogs are mainly concentrated on eating! They can eat up to 200grams of food per night. Their lower weight limit is 500 grams to be able to survive the winter. Adult hedgehogs can weight up to 2.5 kg. They are building their winter nest (hibernaculum), bringing small pieces of branches and grasses. Sometimes the nest can have an isolation layer of 50 cm. They can also sleep under wooden steps or in other man made places.

Winter: Hedgehogs are sleeping in their nests. Body temperature drops down to 9°C. Breathing 1 to 10 times per minute. Heart beats are 1/10 of their normal rate. Hedgehog will wake up few times, but does not eat anything and falls asleep again. A hedgehog waken up from his winter sleep too early will starve to death...

Spring: Hopefully hedgehogs are waking up again!

Click on a photo if you would like to read a hedgehog story!!!

Would you like to help to preserve hedgehogs? Invite a hedgehog to your garden!

Hedgehogs can eat up many unwanted insects.

Leave out piles of branches and leafs.
If you can leave some parts of the garden uncultivated.
A hedgehog friendly garden is as well children friendly garden:

deep holes in the ground should be secured
pieces of wire, sharp net should be removed
no poison or aggressive chemicals are allowed to lay around

You can put out some food and fresh water just after getting dark, but be aware that this can also attract other animals to come.

Please, be careful in the spring time, when you plan to burn piles of dry branches and leafs, it can be a hedgehog home! If you have a pond: make sure that there is some way for a hedgehog to get out of it, like a piece of wood on the edge.

Recomended book:
Hedgehog in your garden by Doreen King
Kingdom Books 1996, ISBN 185279021-0

What can they eat?

Cat (especially Whiskas) and dog food, dry and wet
Apples
Bananas
Eggs
Cream mixed with water
Yellow cheese
Generally leftovers from your dinners (but not vegetables).

The hedgehogs I have been feeding did not like especially: potatoes, onions and cornflakes. Hedgehog food: Spike's Dinner - available in Great Britain from Perky Petfoods.

Please Avoid

MILK
SPICY FOOD
BREAD
BISCUITS

Remember to give them food in clean plates and don't forget about FRESH WATER!

Please DO NOT move hedgehogs from their places or take them home.

In case the hedgehog has lots of insects you can help him like that:

Prepare a bath using not too hot water
Use insect shampoo recommended for dogs and cats or only water
try not to make their ears wet during a bath
Do not use any powders
If the hedgehog is scared, stop the procedure.

Opinions about washing hedgehogs are divided, some say that they will cope with insects themselves, some claim they can even die of them.

Interesting facts:

Hedgehogs appeared on Earth 50 millions years ago and have not changed too much since that time.
Hedgehogs can cope with a lot of poisons. One gram of poison which would kill 300 people kills only 8 hedgehogs.
In the ancient Rome hedgehogs has been used as brushes!

What is not true about hedgehogs?

They are definitely not carrying apples on their backs as they used to be illustrated in children's books.

Encounters with hedgehogs

25th of August: VERY hungry hedgehog almost bites me in the finger when I am giving him a piece of apple! what a creature...

27th of August: I am starting to put out some food every night and wait how many of hedgehogs will show up. Surprise! One night it was eight of them at the same time!!!

29th of August: Rain, rain, rain, but they are still coming to eat. Food is food.

1st of September: One hedgie fell asleep in the plate, at least he looked like. The rule of thumb: don't let the other hedgehog get the food. The best is: to just sit in it! That is what they do anyway...

5th of September: Today I have seen a real hedgehog fight. Two of quite big hedgehogs were pushing each other with their foreheads, like two angry bulls.

7th of September: They have to like the food I am putting out, some of them weight more than 1.5 kg and have problems to actually walk.

10th of September: Have you ever seen a hedgehog laying on the back? I have seen it today. He just rolled himself on the back and has started to lick himself on the fur. It was quite a fat hedgehog, so later on, he had real problems to turn around and stand on his legs again. it was looking really funny.

11th of September: Small hoglets are very easily scared and they run away very, very fast. Maybe that is why they are so small?

13th of September: One big hedgehog was scratching himself very, very much. Oh, I thought he has to have too many fleas, lets help him. I have put some food out and waited until he came, than I slowly lifted him up (my hands in the gloves). Kent has made a bath, and he was pouring slowly water on our little friend. He seem to enjoy it, at least he stayed quite calm. Flies (red!) were jumping in panic in all directions. We had to change the water three times, it was completely BLACK! That was an experience.

15th of September: One hedgehog has visited our neighbour, coming into her living room trough the open door! I wish we could live on the ground floor...

18th of September: From around ten hedgehogs which I have been seeing every evening only the smallest ones are left. Those fat, old ones have already found a place for their winter sleep. They are not coming anymore, even though the autumn is very warm this year.

29th of September: One of those small hedgehogs is actually brown. I have never seen it before. His nose is brown and the spikes are light brown. Quite elegant.

5th of October: This was the last day I have seen any hedgehogs this autumn...what a pity. One night was cold, -3C. They finally decided to go to sleep. I wonder sometimes what are they going to dream about during such a long time!