H is for HEDGEHOG.

Baaaaaa!!!!! :D

Well, well, well, sorry for that bad greetings i gave to you. Couldn't pick any others nice greetings to open this post. Hahaha. What a shame..

How do you do, dear kind-hearted readers? Hope you're in a great condition. My mood is currently nice. It's because... Hmm.. I think it's because many random things happened on past few days. No, be calm. I won't let you bored with my story. The only thing i'm gonna write on this post is..... *drum roll please*

I wanna pet a HEDGEHOG!

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Why hedgehog?

This pretension appeared when i watched tv show which explained how cute hedgehog it is and i feel in love with the. :* Besides, hedgehog is also a nocturnal animal. Kinda similar with me. :p

Umm.. This is a short review which explain about how cute hedgehog is... :3

A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to North America; those in New Zealand are introduced. Hedgehogs have changed little over the last 15 million years. Like many of the first mammals they have adapted to a nocturnal, insectivorous way of life. The name 'hedgehog' came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English 'heyghoge', from 'heyg', 'hegge' = hedge, because it frequents hedgerows, and 'hoge', 'hogge' = hog, from its piglike snout. Other folk names include 'urchin', 'hedgepig' and 'furze-pig'

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Physical description

A defense that all species of hedgehogs possess is the ability to roll into a tight ball, causing all of the spines to point outwards. However, its effectiveness depends on the number of spines, and since some of the desert hedgehogs evolved to carry less weight, they are much more likely to try to run away and sometimes even attack the intruder, trying to ram into the intruder with its spines, and rolling as a last resort. This results in a different number of predators for different species: while forest hedgehogs have relatively few, primarily birds (especially owls) and ferrets, smaller species like the Long-eared Hedgehog are preyed on by foxes, wolves and mongooses.

Hedgehogs are primarily nocturnal, although, depending on the species, they may be more or less active during the day. The hedgehog sleeps for a large portion of the daytime either under cover of bush, grass, rock or in a hole in the ground. Again, different species can have slightly different habits, but in general hedgehogs dig dens for shelter. All wild hedgehogs can hibernate, although not all do; hibernation depends on temperature, species, and abundance of food.

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Hedgehogs have many alternate defense mechanisms. In most situations a hedgehog will flee rather than confront a threat, rolled up in a ball or not. All hedgehogs possess the stamina to run, many can make 4.5 miles per hour or better, and are particularly adept at climbing steep walls, trees, and fences and even swimming.

Hedgehogs are fairly vocal and communicate through a combination of grunts, snuffles and/or squeals, depending on species. Hedgehogs occasionally perform a ritual called anointing. When the animal encounters a new scent, it will lick and bite the source, then form a scented froth in its mouth and paste it on its spines with its tongue. It is unknown what the specific purpose of this ritual is, but some experts believe anointing camouflages the hedgehog with the new scent of the area and provides a possible poison or source of infection to predators poked by their spines. Anointing is sometimes also called anting because of a similar behavior in birds.

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Similar to opossums, mice, and moles, hedgehogs have some natural immunity against snake venom due to the protein erinacin in the animal's muscular system.

In captivity, hedgehogs tend to get along with dogs, cats and other pets. On the rare occasions when they do feel threatened by these animals, the hedgehog will roll into a ball until the threatening animal disappears. Still, care should be taken to protect hedgehogs from particularly large, aggressive, or mischievous pets. (Wikipedia)

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Look how cute they are. I just couldn't resist it. FYI an albino hedgehoge costs IDR 300.000,- and the platinum one costs IDR 5.000.000,-. Yea the platinum one is hedgehog's top species. It has black eyes and the color of its body is white. and the problem is i fell in love with the platinum one. It means i have to tighten my belt so i could save more money. Or.. anybody wants to give me platinum hedgehog as a birthday present? I would love to receive it. :P


● WIENA ●