Brian Cox and Robin Ince host an irreverent look at the world through scientists' eyes.
, Brian Cox and Robin Ince forage into the prickly lives of Britain’s favourite mammal. With special guests including poet Pam Ayres, they snuffle their way through the evolution of hedgehogs, their life cycle and how to stop them getting run over by robotic lawn mowers!“This is one of the few animal species that you can actually get really close to,” says Sophie Lund Rasmussen .
A female usually gives birth to around four or five hoglets at a time and, because hedgehogs are generally very promiscuous, each litter may have several different fathers.“You can tell the age of a hedgehog by counting growth rings in their jawbones, like you would do on trees,” explains Sophie Lund Rasmussen. The Danish researcher examined the jawbones of 400 dead hedgehogs and counted up to 16 years of growth rings in some.
“If you want a viable population of hedgehogs, you need a garden of about a square kilometre.” Most of us don’t have that, but we can help by putting 13cm holes in the bottom of our garden fences and walls to make “hedgehog streets”, so the animals can roam and extend the gene pool.Humans are the greatest threat to the hedgehog. “They get tangled up in football nets,” says Pam Ayres. “They can just get trapped and die.” The same goes for the fine netting used in gardens.
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