1: Jerzy appeared on Earth about 15 million years ago.
2: The average hedgehog has about 10 thousand needles. They are updated every three years. Hedge needles grow long, about a year. Luckily for the hedgehog, their update happens gradually.
3: The hedgehog has 36 teeth, which, like people, can fall to old age.
4: hedgehogs more than any other animals, suffer from tick bites. When a hedgehog runs along the grass, it is as if combing out of it parasites, which willingly settle on an unfortunate animal. Get rid of ticks hedgehogs interfere with their own needles, so they go to the trick - puncture themselves with cigarette butts to etch the parasites with tobacco.
5: In epidemiology there is the concept of "every hour". It indicates the number of mites collected by the hedgehog for an hour of running through the forest. Accounting for "hourly" helps scientists identify natural foci of tick-borne encephalitis.
6: The winter hibernation of hedgehogs lasts 128 days. While the hedgehog is asleep, his body temperature drops to 2 degrees Celsius (under normal conditions it is 34 degrees). The breathing of sleeping hedgehogs is seriously slowed down: a maximum of 8 breaths per minute, although they usually breathe with a frequency of 40-50 times. A waking hedgehog is a walking incarnation of hunger, so a few days after waking the animal spends exclusively on finding food.
7: Most types of hedgehogs have a tail. However, it is very short - only 3 cm, so it can not be seen from under the needles.
8: Despite the fact that hedgehogs know how to distinguish colors, they are by nature blind. But they have a very sharp ear and a delicate sense of smell.
9: Eared hedgehogs differ from their brethren in that they are extremely reluctant to collapse into a ball in the event of danger. This species of hedgehogs runs very fast, and it is not easy to catch up with its land predators. If the eared hedgehog is overtaken by the enemy, then the animal bounces and tries to prick his opponent into sensitive places.
10: The hedgehogs are immune to poison vipers, although they do not hunt these snakes specially. However, if the opportunity arises, the hedgehog will eat the viper with great appetite.