This helps preserve the fruit and vegetables you may have growing in your gardens. Hedgehogs: nocturnal foragers Description. Not only do they enjoy berries and fruit but the staple of their diet is made up from pests that are common in our back gardens such as beetles and caterpillars. Hedgehogs are solitary, nocturnal mammals in the family Erinaceidae, order Eulipotyphla, which includes shrews and moles. Hedgehogs have earnt this reputation because of their eating habits. It is extremely rare that you will see multiple hedgehogs together in one place other than when mating, but if you do it is called an array. Playing with them and letting them roam around before bedtime will help them. Bonding with them can take a while due to their solitary nature. They usually then spend their entire lives alone with the exception of pairing up to mate with another hedgehog. Hedgehogs are nocturnal and are most active at night. Hedgehogs venture out on their own after only four to seven weeks of nurturing from their mother. If a hedgehog smells or tastes something really strong, it will attempt to cover itself in foamy saliva, much like a cat cleaning itself. The hedgehog has a vulnerable stomach, which is why it curls up into a spiky ball when predators such as badgers are around. Each quill/ spine lasts about a year before dropping out and being replaced. These can be raised and lowered to respond to threatening situations.

iStock And even their limited sight is best in the dark as an adaption to their. Hedgehogs have around 5000 to 7000 spines on their back. HEDGEHOGS RELY ON HEARING AND SMELL BECAUSE THEY HAVE VERY POOR EYESIGHT. The UK only has one native species, the European Hedgehog. Each are similar but have small charistic and habitual differences. There are 15 different species of hedgehog in the world. They hunt primarily using they hearing and smell because their eyesight is not very good, although they can see quite well in the dark. It is even ahead of their mouths as it makes it easier to forage for their staple diet of insects, worms, caterpillers and berries. Hedgehogs have a really long snout to help them hunt. Before this they were called Urchins which led to the naming of Sea Urchins. The hedgehog was not always called a hedgehog. In deserts, they sleep through heat and drought in a similar process called aestivation. Hedgehogs are actually lactose intolerant, so milk should never be left out for them, water is perfectly fine. Hibernating means that they hole themselves up and stay in a dormant state for winter. Hedgehogs have the ability to hibernate (although not all do), which makes them one of only three mammals that hibernate in the UK.

Are hedgehogs nocturnal