The day of the hedgehog

The hedgehog is one of the most popular guests in gardens. It inhabits large areas of landscape, but today, due to habitat loss, its habitat is increasingly limited to settlements, where it seeks out a garden.

It’s not just structural interventions in nature that are disrupting the hedgehog’s habitat, but unfortunately climate change is also causing enormous problems for this prickly friend and is a major challenge for it and its conspecifics.

The hedgehog is one of the oldest mammals on earth

The hedgehog is one of the oldest extant mammals in the history of the earth, as its ancestors lived 65 million years ago. The hedgehog, in the form we know it today, has been around for 15 million years.

The hedgehog has been a protected species since 1936, meaning that it may not be captured, injured or killed. An effective law that, if you’ll pardon the pun, should be included in driving lessons, knowing that it is estimated that between 100,000 and 1,000,000 hedgehogs fall victim to road traffic every year.

Death trap road

Hedgehogs are magically attracted to warm, tarmac roads and fall into the death trap themselves, so to speak. Hedgehogs are insectivores and follow the tracks of beetles and other insects. These in turn migrate to areas that are warm – i.e. to asphalt roads.

When the hedgehog detects a car with its fine hearing, it stops and waits to see whether it might be “overlooked” due to its immobility. Only when it perceives the danger directly does the hedgehog adopt the familiar, spherical defence posture.

Brake for hedgehogs too

If you are driving through the countryside on a warm summer’s day, with meadows to the left and right, you can assume that a hedgehog will suddenly want to cross the road. It’s a good idea to slow down and be ready to brake to protect animal life.

It would therefore be a good idea to organise protection campaigns for hedgehogs, similar to the protection of toads during their migration (in spring), to stop them dying.

Protection measures to preserve the hedgehog population in times of climate change

If a hedgehog is discovered in the garden during the warm winter months, a call to the hedgehog friends in Austria, a vet or a wildlife centre will help. They will advise you on how to get the hedgehog through a winter that is too warm or how to help the hedgehog find food and water in summers that are too warm.

The early warmth in spring and the associated dryness is not only a problem for humans, but also for hedgehogs in particular. Dry soils mean that the hedgehog’s diet is very limited. In recent winters, it has also been observed that due to the mild winters, hedgehogs are increasingly forgoing hibernation and entering the mating season early. The first offspring are born at the end of January and cold snaps are fatal for the young hedgehogs.

Where do hedgehogs look for shelter?

Hoglets are masters at hiding, which is not least their survival strategy in the wild. During the day, they prefer to remain in their resting places. They choose their hiding places very carefully: They favour dry, quiet and hidden places. A pile of logs, densely overgrown bushes or even specially constructed hedgehog houses serve as ideal retreats.

Some hedgehogs are also drawn to garages or woodsheds to build a shelter there. Hedgehogs move between several sleeping places and wander through gardens in search of food and safety. It is this flexibility that makes hedgehogs particularly interesting and shows how adaptable they are. Hedgehogs are gourmets and forage for slugs and snails – one more reason to avoid slug pellets in the garden.