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It’s important to recollect that hedgehogs are not just pets. In the UK and Europe hedgehogs run wild and are a particularly crucial part of their local ecosystem.
ECU Hedgehog - photograph thanks to Bart truck Oijen guarded by law in most ECU countries, one would think hedgehogs are safe and secure, but in fact they are in consistent danger of extinction by the hands of humans.. Regularly misunderstood and drenched in folklore, hedgehogs are as much at risk from do-gooders as they are from those that would like to see them dead. In traditional times, and as late as the fifteenth century, hedgehogs ( or urchins as they were then known ) were often charged with being hags in animal form.
They were also appearing on menus of the day. Conrad of Megenberg considered their flesh to be good for a number of infirmities : “…the flesh of the hedgehog is healthy for the stomach and bolsters the same. Similarly it hath a power of drying and relieving the gut.
It deals with the water of dropsy and is of great help to like are inclined to the illness called elephantiasis” though conditions have improved somewhat for the poor hedgehog, folks still have myths that lead to their sickness and death on a virtually daily basis. Numerous hedgehogs are rubbed out on roadways each year in spite of attempts to educate the general public and the building of special “hedgehog tunnels” under roadways, built to try to give the animals a safe way to go around busy roads. Many owners still put out a dish of milk and bread to persuade hedgehogs to remain in their gardens. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, making this convention more damaging than advantageous. 2 ECU Hedgehogs Care has to be taken before burning a pile of leaves or when turning over mulch piles since hedgehogs like to burrow into them to sleep and sleep. Many hapless hedgehogs have been carelessly burned to death or impaled on the end of garden forks as a consequence of failing to first check the pile. Swimming pools can similarly prove a source of danger since hedgehogs can fall in and, with no real way out, drown. Pool owners should install a wooden ramp or a chunk of thick rope to permit hedgehogs that might fall in to climb out on their own.
