2nd February: Hedgehog Day

It's Hedgehog Day! Ten facts for you about these little creatures:

1. Hedgehogs have been so called since the 15th century. Before that they were called igls. "Hedge" refers to its usual habitat, and "hog" refers to its piglike snout and the snuffling noise it makes. Other names include urchin (sea urchins were named after them), hedgepig and furze-pig. The collective noun for a group of hedgehogs is array or prickle. The name for a baby hedgehog is a hoglet.
2. The average hedgehog has about 5,000 to 6,500 quills, which are hollow hairs made stiff with keratin. Muscles on the hedgehog's back control the position of the spines, so as best to protect their vulnerable areas when they employ their well-known defence tactic of rolling into a ball.
3. They eat insects, Slugs, Snails, caterpillars, Frogs and toads, Snakes, bird eggs, carrion, Mushrooms, grass roots, berries, melons and watermelons. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, so putting out Bread and Milk for them as so many of us were taught to do as children, is actually very bad for them. If you want to feed the hedgehog in your garden, give it non-fish flavour cat food.
4. They are eaten by Badgers and owls, and in some cultures, by people. Hedgehogs were eaten in Ancient Egypt and some recipes of the Late Middle Ages call for hedgehog meat. In the Middle East, hedgehog meat is thought to cure rheumatism, arthritis, tuberculosis, impotence and witchcraft. In Morocco, inhaling the smoke of the burnt hedgehog skin is a remedy for fever, male impotence, and urinary illnesses. The blood is sold as a cure for ringworm, cracked skin and warts. Romani people still eat hedgehogs, boiled or roasted. The 1980s hedgehog flavour crisps, however, did not contain hedgehog.
5. It's illegal to keep a wild hedgehog as a pet (although there are some domesticated species) or even drive one in a car in the US state of Pennsylvania.
6. Hedgehogs have an unusual habit called anointing. When it encounters a new scent, it will bite or lick the source, then produce a frothy saliva and cover its spines with it. Nobody knows why they do it, although one theory is that it is a form of camouflage.
7. Hedgehogs are largely immune to snake venom.
8. There are seventeen different species of hedgehog, originating from Europe, Asia, and Africa. There are no native species in America, Australia or New Zealand, but they have been introduced there. They belong to the family Erinaceidae and are distantly related to shrews.
9. A hedgehog can run at over six feet per second. They've also been known to scale walls.
10. In New Zealand, McGillicuddy's Serious Party once tried to get a hedgehog elected to Parliament. They were unsuccessful.