Interesting Facts

According to a survey by The Wildlife Trusts, 4 in 10 British children have never seen a hedgehog in the wild in the UK. (The same survey found that 71 per cent of British children have never seen a lizard in the wild, while more than half have not seen a flock of starlings in flight (called a mumuration). Mrs Tiggiwinkle will be incensed.)  

The hedgehog got its name because it forages in hedges and undergrowth. (As it moves through the hedges looking for slugs and snails it grunts, like a pig — thus, the name hedgehog.)

According to Dr Charles Brown, of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, swallows are evolving to avoid getting hit by cars. (A study carried out over several years  in Keith County, Nebraska, has shown a  sharp reduction in the number of swallows killed on the roads, and the results seem to show that n atural selection has favoured birds that are better able to get out of the way of oncoming cars and trucks.  Now if only hedgehogs would evolve too.)