Common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) belongs to the class of mammals, the order of insectivores. His relatives: moles, shrews and bats. Like all representatives of this order, the hedgehog moves a lot and is capable of walking several kilometers in search of food during the night. That’s why he has an excellent appetite and is distinguished by his gluttony.
With the onset of dusk, the prickly hunter busily prowls throughout the entire area and eats until dawn. Everything is eaten: insects, their larvae, mollusks, slugs, frogs, carrion, bird eggs and chicks, small rodents and some vegetation. There are so many garden pests in the hedgehog's diet that the benefits are undeniable and easily noticeable.
Question and answer Why can’t hedgehogs be given milk?
In folklore all over the world, the hedgehog is an extremely positive character. The animal is distinguished by its gentleness, courage, does not harm either people or households, and at the same time is damn charming. Residents of central Russia often encounter ordinary hedgehogs in the forest, in the park or in their summer cottage.
long eared hedgehog
In the south of Russia, in the Rostov region, in the Kuban, in the Stavropol Territory or in Transcaucasia, the long-eared hedgehog lives. It is somewhat smaller, much more nimble, runs quickly on high thin legs and has large ears, which make it very funny. Unlike its relatives, the long-eared hedgehog cannot curl up into a tight, prickly ball. Seeing danger, he takes to his heels and only in extreme cases dares to attack, trying to butt the enemy with thorns. At the same time, defending himself from a retaliatory strike, he only bends his head. In such a situation, our hedgehog would curl up so tightly that even the tip of his nose would not peek out from the thorns.
Daurian, bald and African
In the Far East, another hedgehog is found - the Daurian. It is very similar to the common one, but is so few in number that it is listed in the Red Book. In total, there are almost two dozen species in the hedgehog family, not very different in appearance from each other. There is even a bald hedgehog, but, of course, it was called that not because of the lack of fur and thorns, but because of the small bald spot on its head. By the way, the pet, which is called the African hedgehog, is in fact not a wild species living in Africa at all, but a product of modern science: a hybrid of several southern species, from which the new individuals received a decorative dwarf shape and white spines. Thus, the African hedgehog is a real artificially bred pet.
Prickly neighbor. What you need to know about hedgehogs Read more
Pros and cons of hedgehogs appearing in the country
Hedgehogs belong to the family of insectivorous mammals and number more than two dozen species. The most popular of them is the common hedgehog, which can often be found in forests, ravines, on the edges and near human houses. A characteristic feature of these animals is that they have an excellent sense of smell and hearing, but have poor vision and touch. The average lifespan of a hedgehog is about 6 years. During the summer day they hide in hollows and dense bushes, and in the evening they become more active and go out hunting.
The main task of a hedgehog in the summer is to accumulate a thick layer of fat before the beginning of hibernation. To do this, he needs to consume a lot of food. The hibernation period lasts 127 days, it begins in October and ends in early April. In spring, hedgehogs are very weak and thin, so they hunt and obtain food almost around the clock.
The benefits and harms of hedgehogs in the country
Due to the great biological need of hedgehogs for food, they are able to eat live slugs, small snails, worms, newborn mice, pests and their larvae, succulent caterpillars and other pests, thereby clearing your garden of them and protecting plants from damage. Such insects include leaf beetles, wireworms or click beetles, various types of cutworms, and mole cricket pests. Another benefit that a hedgehog brings to a dacha is the extermination of mice and snakes.
The disadvantages of keeping hedgehogs is the possibility of them being bitten and pricked by needles. Hedgehog bites often provoke inflammatory processes, infections, and wound suppuration. Hedgehogs can also eat small kittens, bird eggs and chicks. If you raise rabbits on your farm, you should protect their cages from hedgehogs, since the latter are big fans of feasting on newborn rabbits.
Hedgehogs in the country are capable of destroying a large number of insect pests, mice, frogs, slugs, snails, thus cleaning our garden.
Use in cooking
Sea urchin caviar is used to make sushi, salads and other cold dishes. It is often eaten fresh. If the caviar is bitter, you can add a few drops of lemon juice or soy sauce to it. In European cuisine, caviar undergoes heat treatment: it is fried and baked. From it you can prepare:
- Italian pasta or spaghetti;
- pates;
- various sauces;
- spices.
In Italy, sea urchins are also served with dessert dishes. Granite ice cream, which is made from fruit juice mixed with alcohol, is in great demand. Champagne is often used for this, which goes well with the caviar of these sea creatures.
Why are hedgehogs dangerous in the country?
Scientists have proven that the skin and needles of hedgehogs contain a large number of parasites, such as mites, including encephalitis, worm eggs or fleas. Hedgehogs are also carriers of rabies. Therefore, keeping them in your garden can pose a great danger to your pets (especially dogs), children and people. If a person's skin is damaged by a hedgehog's needle, they can become infected and become infected with various diseases. Pet shampoos do not help in cleaning hedgehogs from fleas, ticks, insect larvae and pests, and chemicals can kill them. In addition, animals do not tolerate contact with water well. Insects that were on the hedgehog spread very quickly throughout the entire area and can cause ticks and worms in children and pets. The presence of such a number of various insects on the needles of hedgehogs is explained by the fact that they comb the grass with them, transferring insects from the grass to themselves. Parasites settle on the skin of a hedgehog and can live there for quite a long time.
The most terrible disease that can be contracted from a hedgehog is rabies. Even a seemingly healthy animal may already be infected. Hedgehogs often suffer from a latent or atypical form of rabies, which does not have such clear symptoms as usual: increased aggression, fear of water, convulsions, excessive salivation.
Delicacy of hedgehog meat
Sharp teeth and hard spines do not guarantee absolute immunity for a hedgehog. Wolves, foxes and dogs catch them in the wild. Each hunter has his own method. The most terrible “killer” specializing in hedgehogs is the eagle owl. The bird has sensitive hearing and instantly finds its prey based on barely audible rustling sounds. The clawed paw of the bird is reliably protected by horny scales, and it is not afraid of thorns.
People actively exterminate hedgehogs at all times. In the old days, they were skinned, dried, stretched onto wooden blocks - and they made excellent brushes for combing horse manes and sheep's wool. Leather workers tanned leather using hedgehog skins.
Many peoples appreciated the taste of these animals. Usually, in order to separate the meat from the thorns, they were baked and coated with clay. To this day, hedgehog stew is a delicacy in England, and gypsies prefer hedgehog meat fried over a fire.
Precautionary measures
If your hedgehog does appear at your dacha, you don’t need to drive it out or kill it for fear of becoming infected. You should simply not make any tactile contact with him, do not pick him up, and do not allow children and animals near him. If the hedgehog runs inside the house, cover it with a bucket or thick cloth, pull the bucket towards the front door and open the bucket so that the animal can run out. If you wrapped the hedgehog in a thick cloth, pick it up in your arms, being careful not to prick yourself, and carry it out of the house. Sterilize the fabric.
In the event of a bite or needle stick, immediately squeeze out as much blood as possible and disinfect the wound with alcohol or iodine.
Set the guest view
Try to make friends with the hedgehog - it's much nicer and more fun. Notice the places in the area where he appears most often, and in the evening leave him a treat: meat trimmings, pieces of fish or chicken. Hedgehogs eat dry or canned food for dogs and cats with great pleasure. If by morning the bowl of treats turns out to be empty, this does not mean that it was the prickly neighbor who accepted your treat.
At night, other uninvited guests, such as cats, may scurry around the area. In order to establish the truth, you can resort to the old method of border guards - creating a “control strip”. Scatter sand on the ground and level it with your hand or a fan rake. Place a bowl of treats in the center. In the morning, based on the footprints left around the bowl, you will quickly understand who it was.
How to help hedgehogs settle in your area?
Despite the danger that hedgehogs can pose in the country, they bring great benefits to gardeners, so many of them specifically attract and feed hedgehogs, thereby provoking them to settle on their site. Hedgehogs are big gluttons and can quickly tame. After feeding the animal two or three times, it will immediately understand that there is food here and will come to you more often. Over time, he will stop being afraid of you, and hiss, and will come out when you call or smell you.
If you want to place hedgehogs in your garden on a permanent basis, you should create living conditions for them that are as close to natural as possible. Since hedgehogs most often live in thickets or dry forests, plant dense bushes or hedges. Plants such as mahonia holly, rose hips or hawthorn are suitable for this. The animal will quickly settle inside the bushes and will be able to hide during the daytime from the sun and prying eyes.
Hedgehogs often make houses for themselves. To do this, they use various materials that are on the site, for example, old boards, pieces of roofing felt, films or pieces of foam plastic. Sometimes animals can settle in a compost pit. If you plan to remove a compost bin, inspect it for hedgehog nests. They create nests when they plan to have offspring. They do not leave him until the hedgehogs grow up and disperse.
Treat for hedgehogs
Hedgehogs have a wide diet, so finding what to feed your hedgehog is not difficult. If you want to please your pet with milk, give preference to goat or sheep milk, as cow milk can cause toothache or stomach pain. Hedgehogs' favorite treat is meat of any kind. They also love bloodworms. The hedgehog will not disdain white bread and dog food. The meat they use is beef in large pieces, which they then tear into pieces themselves. In nature, hedgehogs eat mice, frogs, snakes and lizards. He also loves eggs, fruits, vegetables, fish, pasta, nuts, cereals and cheese. You need to feed the hedgehog regularly, he will follow the smell and quickly identify for himself the place and time when he can find food on it. Over time, when he gets used to you, he can bring his entire family to you for feeding.
Be sure to feed your hedgehog generously before hibernation. During this period, he needs more food to form fat reserves for the winter. It is recommended to leave fresh water for your hedgehog in a heavy metal or glass bowl that he cannot tip over.
Application in medicine
The medicinal properties of sea urchin caviar have been noticed and appreciated for quite some time. This product contains so many useful substances, vitamins and minerals that it is often used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases [8]. Research by scientists in the field of oncological diseases has shown that some substances contained in sea urchin caviar are capable of infecting cancer cells, while healthy cells undergo a kind of purification [9], [10].
Regular consumption of caviar from these animals contributes to:
- normalization of blood pressure;
- increasing potency;
- removal of harmful substances, radionuclides and toxins from the body;
- increasing immunity and improving the body’s protective function;
- improving thyroid function and sexual function;
- normalization of the cardiovascular system;
- restoration of the body after radiation and chemotherapy;
- prevention of gastritis, ulcers, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract [11], [12].
Russian scientists from the space research center have developed special tablets based on the medicinal properties of sea urchin caviar, used during extreme physical activity. These tablets help astronauts avoid physical and nervous exhaustion during space flights.
Nutritionists from the Primorsky Territory have created a strong alcohol tincture based on sea urchin caviar. This product is widely used in medicine as a homeopathic tonic. The medicine helps to increase sexual desire, improves immunity and increases the body's protective properties. The tincture can help avoid alcohol intoxication. To do this, you need to take it before and after drinking alcohol.
Sea urchin caviar tincture recipe
The recipe for making this tincture is extremely simple. You should sort the caviar, rinse it well with warm sea water and pour it with a heated alcohol solution with a strength of up to 70% in a ratio of 1:25. The resulting product is left to infuse in a dark place for 4 days at room temperature. Then the solution is filtered and settled. In such a tincture, all the beneficial properties of caviar are preserved, and the healing drink acquires them in full.
Safety of hedgehogs in the country
Very often, there may be various items and objects in the garden plot that can pose a danger to hedgehogs. These include:
- Garden pond. Hedgehogs can swim, but have difficulty getting out of the pond along the slippery walls. If there is a pond on your site, attach a board to its edges; it can become a salvation for a fallen hedgehog.
- The chain-link mesh has sharp edges that can injure a hedgehog when it wants to crawl under it. Raise the net to a height inaccessible to the hedgehog.
- Chemicals. Open chemicals can cause hedgehog death. Because out of curiosity, he may come to a new smell, chew on a bag of chemicals and taste them. It is almost impossible to save an animal from them.
- Garden tools. Storing gardening tools and tools in a place accessible to hedgehogs can cause injuries, cuts and bruises. They should be kept in closed areas without holes.
Housing for a hedgehog in the country
If you want to build a hedgehog house on your property, you can do this in several ways. The simplest of them is to buy a house at a pet store. As a rule, such houses are made of wicker and look like wicker baskets with a tunnel entrance. The size of the house is about 50x40x20cm, and weight up to 1 kg. Wooden houses are also sold; they are more expensive, but provide better shelter for animals in winter. In addition, they are more durable. Size may vary. After installing the house on the site, there is no need to fill it with hay or rags. It is best to put dry leaves in it in small quantities.
If you want to build a house yourself, you will need bricks, boards and film. Lay out the base of the house with bricks in a P-shape. Place 4 more layers of bricks on top to raise it in height. Place dry leaves inside and cover the roof with boards covered with film. Cover the top of the house with earth, turf or leaves. Make a place near the entrance for bowls of food and water. Place old newspapers separately, from which the hedgehogs will make a nest for themselves to sleep.
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Debunking fables
The most incredible stories are told about these mammals.
They eat vipers
No one has ever observed such a “lunch” in living nature. In captivity, when a poisonous snake is given to a hungry hedgehog, he really bravely rushes into battle and, as a rule, emerges victorious. As for the film footage and videos depicting such fights, most of them are staged footage.
An adult hedgehog has from 6 to 10 thousand spines on its skin.
Its spines are a “bag” for apples and mushrooms
On the one hand, the spines reliably protect against some predators and serve as an excellent barrier from cold or heat: each spine is hollow inside. On the other hand, try to get through this thorny palisade to the ticks and fleas scurrying in the undercoat! With its clawed paws, a hedgehog can carry out some hygiene procedures, but cannot clean itself thoroughly.
Likes to drink milk
If you offer an animal a saucer of milk, it will gladly accept such a treat. In pseudo-scientific literature, you can even find stories about hedgehogs who specifically sneaked into cowsheds during milking in order to greedily lick droplets of milk that did not end up in the bucket. Perhaps such cases did occur.
