How Do Hedgehogs Spend the Winter? A Detailed Explanation of Hedgehog Overwintering Habits

A hedgehog's body is covered with thick, short spines, and even its short little tail is hidden among the spines. When attacked by an enemy, it bends its head toward its belly, curls its body into a ball, wrapping its head and limbs inside, and raises its steel-like spines all over. So, do you know how hedgehogs spend the winter?

1. How do hedgehogs spend the winter?

Hedgehogs spend the winter by hibernating in burrows. When the temperature drops to 7°C, they enter a state of hibernation, which lasts as long as 4 to 5 months.

2. What characteristics do hedgehogs have?

1. Heterothermic animal

Because they cannot stably regulate their own body temperature to keep it at the same level, hedgehogs hibernate in winter. Except for the belly, a hedgehog's whole body is covered with stiff spines, and when it encounters danger it rolls into a ball covered with spines. Its form and gentle temperament are very cute, and some breeds are only slightly larger than a human palm, which is why in Australia some people keep them as pets.

2. Keen sense of touch and smell

Hedgehogs have very long snouts, and their sense of touch and smell are highly developed. Their favorite food is ants and termites. When it smells food underground, it digs open the entrance with its claws, then sticks its long, sticky tongue into the burrow and swirls it around, immediately getting a hearty meal. Hedgehogs live in bushes, can swim, and fear heat. Hedgehogs begin hibernating in late autumn and do not wake until the temperature warms to a certain level the following spring. Hedgehogs like to snore, similar to humans.

3. Preying on pests

Because they prey on large numbers of harmful insects, hedgehogs are beneficial animals to humans. Hedgehogs also eat young birds, bird eggs, frogs, lizards and so on, and occasionally eat crops.

4. Timid and solitary by nature

The hedgehog is a very solitary animal. It lives in bushes, is timid and easily startled, prefers quiet to noise, likes darkness and fears light, and fears both heat and cold. Hedgehogs move slowly and are generally nocturnal, resting by day and coming out at night. Hedgehogs dig burrows as nests, hiding in the nest during the day and coming out to be active only after dusk. Hedgehogs can generally resist many kinds of poisons, but cannot resist insecticides, and sometimes die of poisoning after accidentally eating insects killed by insecticides.

Under normal circumstances, hedgehogs stay away from areas of human activity and prefer to make their nests at the edges of wild suburban land or beside streams, and they will not attack people. So when you see a hedgehog, do not frighten or harm them.