Animals prepare for the cold season in different ways. Someone makes supplies for the winter, someone warms up with winter fur, and some simply decide to sleep through a difficult time of the year. Including hedgehogs.
Why do hedgehogs hibernate
The hedgehog belongs to the order of insectivores. True, his diet includes not only insects and their larvae, but also various invertebrates, as well as mice, frogs, lizards, snakes, chicks. And although the hedgehog occasionally allows himself to eat a berry or two, he still eats animal food, which is impossible to get in winter. Like all insectivores, hedgehogs are very voracious and can live without food for only a few days. They do not make reserves for the winter, there is only one way out - to survive the cold season in a state of deep sleep with a slowdown in physiological processes. From the middle of autumn, hedgehogs begin to gradually hibernate. This process is long, animals do not immediately fall asleep for a long time, short-term numbness is replaced by periods of wakefulness.
Interestingly, captive hedgehogs also fall asleep for the whole winter, despite the fact that the room where they are kept is warm enough and food is provided for them. The reason for this is their imperfect thermoregulation.
How a hedgehog prepares for hibernation
In order not to die during hibernation, you need to prepare well for it. Three main factors ensure a favorable winter for the hedgehog:
- accumulation of fat during the summer,
- change of hairline (shedding),
- good place to hibernate.
All summer the hedgehog diligently "works" - during the period of abundance of feed, it stores fat for the upcoming winter, that is, it eats. An animal that has accumulated insufficient fat reserves will not survive the winter. Fat accumulates both under the skin and in the internal organs. It is consumed gradually; during hibernation, hedgehogs lose most of their weight. The hedgehog awakened in the spring is very hungry and in a hurry to fill his stomach as soon as possible.
From the middle of summer, hedgehogs undergo molting, the summer hairline changes to winter, thicker and harder. The hedgehog hibernates, curled up in a ball, covering the parts of the body most vulnerable to the cold - paws, belly and muzzle.
For hibernation, hedgehogs must find a suitable shelter. This should be a deep, protected from all sides dwelling, which in winter is covered with snow, which retains a minimum of heat. Zoologists do not know for sure whether the animal itself prepares a den, uses other people's holes, or finds natural depressions - niches under snags, old stumps. It is doubtful that the hedgehog is digging a hole on its own, its legs are not well suited for such work. The hedgehog insulates his future bedroom with moss and dry leaves.
The body temperature of a sleeping hedgehog drops significantly, the number of heartbeats slows down. The state of winter sleep in hedgehogs can last up to six months, so the life of the animal depends on the right place for wintering.
Long winter thaws and snowless winters are fatal for hedgehogs. A hedgehog who wakes up ahead of time does not find food, most often freezes and dies.
