What do hedgehogs eat? Such a question can be heard in a pet store or in a market where these amazing animals are sold. There is probably no person who has lived at least a few years who has not heard of a hedgehog. Children know that this animal eats milk, apples, mushrooms, etc. There are hedgehogs that live at home and run around the room at night, tapping their claws on the floor. And when you frighten him, he curls up into a ball and snorts if you touch him with a stick or foot in shoes.
It is not recommended to touch hedgehogs with your toes or hands, especially those that live in the wild - in the garden, in the country, in the meadow or in the forest. More hedgehogs live in the steppe, and some even in the desert.
Hedgehogs can live next to a person. For example, in our garden, a hedgehog lived with small hedgehogs four meters from the house, in a bush. I was cleaning up old thickets there and accidentally found her nest, in which there were three small flat pink hedgehogs with white soft needles. I showed them to everyone who was at home, then took them to their place, to the nest. It was round, 20-25 cm in diameter, made of sticks, grass, leaves, pieces of plastic bags and newspapers. And the inside is lined with thin blades of grass, old hair (probably dog hair) and other "softness".
After an hour and a half (the Internet was fast), we already knew what hedgehogs eat, where they live, how they behave, and who loves (eats) them. And as soon as dusk fell, the hedgehog went hunting. The dog that lived in the yard, as soon as the hedgehog came, raised a bark and called everyone to look at this prickly miracle. Later it turned out that this dog is not afraid of hedgehog thorns. And one late evening we heard languid barking, then there was a screech, like a kitten - just as plaintive.
I thought that our dog attacked the kitten and ran out of the house to save the baby. But it turned out to be a hedgehog, which the dog (a very kind Caucasian) rolled with his paw along the gravel path and was surprised that this ball also squeaked. To the chagrin of the dog, we had to separate them - the dog to the booth, and the hedgehog to the porch under the light of the lamp for inspection. It turned out that the prickly one was only frightened, because there were no external injuries. He was allowed on the path, and he quickly ran about his business.
The hedgehogs that I found were no more than 2 days old, because on the third day the needles usually darken. The hedgehog fed them from 2, 3 or even 4 pairs of nipples. Papa-hedgehog, according to hedgehog custom, did not live with his family, but lived somewhere nearby. The hunting territory of the mother hedgehog was from 6 to 10 hectares, and that of the father was 2 times larger. That is, all neighboring vegetable gardens, a meadow and 2–3 hundred meters of an almost dry ditch.
Although hedgehogs swim well, they don't like to live in swamps - they can jump from bump to bump, but they don't want to. They do not see well, but they sniff out prey very far, and they can catch up with it, running at a speed of up to 3 m / s. Popes to their territoryforeign hedgehogs are not allowed in and they do not go to visit neighbors. Although they say that hedgehogs go to visit cubs and horses. But it's in the movies. And what hedgehogs eat, they also showed in the movies.
But in life they eat everything that comes on the hunt: adult beetles, bears, lizards, mice, all kinds of reptiles and small amphibians. They can eat worms, caterpillars, slugs, eggs and chicks from nests located on the ground, and even poisonous snakes. The hedgehog feeds until late autumn, accumulating fat for the winter like a huge bear, and then clogs into the nest, wraps itself in its bedding and falls asleep until spring. In winter, if the hedgehog is awakened, it almost certainly dies. But it's a hedgehog.
Let's talk about another species of these animals. There is also an eared hedgehog. His ears are not like those of a hare, of course, but they are also large, up to 5 cm. And he himself is half as small as an ordinary hedgehog. Eared live in Asia and parts of Africa. In the CIS - in the southern regions. Their needles grow only on their backs. On the sides, legs, muzzle and abdomen - light soft wool. The eared hedgehog lives in the desert and semi-desert. Burrows digs itself, up to 1.5 m, or takes abandoned ones. For the winter, it accumulates fat and goes into a hedgehog "lair". In danger, either runs away, or hisses and tries to prick with needles, does not know how to curl up into a ball. It feeds on the same things that ordinary hedgehogs eat - beetles, caterpillars, sometimes mice, snakes, lizards. He does not disdain berries and fruits, but he does not climb trees.
