Sounds will evoke the same response but the brain is almost completely dormant. The hedgehog seems to be dead its feet, ears and skin feel extremely cold but a touch triggers unconscious reflexes that make the spines slowly rise, it may also tuck its head further into the impenetrable ball. A sleeping hedgehog can be seen dreaming and moving just like any other mammal but once in hibernation, the metabolism almost completely stops. Hibernation turns a warm-blooded hedgehog into what is, for all intents and purposes, a cold blooded animal. It's those fat reserves, plus the slower metabolism, that allow it to survive the long winter. Temperature normally 35 oC, drops to 10 oCīefore going into hibernation a hedgehog will spend weeks building up its fat reserves. Heart slows from 190 beats per minute to a barely detectable 20. During the winter, all that cover is gone so they find somewhere they can hide until it grows again. Hedgehogs normally charge around in undergrowth, sheltered from predators by shrubs and bushes. I may be well wide of the mark but I believe that in addition to food and temperatures, lack of cover plays a big part. I'm hoping that more research will be done, not least so that overwintering carers have a better idea of how to treat recovered animals that can't yet be released but I have my own theories. They all have the same conditions, food and water available at all times.

1 in permanent hibernation, the rest causing mayhem. That's when you start to notice they all do different things. That makes perfect sense until you start looking after them and you have dozens of them around all through the winter. It is this lack of food, when the insects have either died out or have gone into hiding until Spring, that forces the hedgehog into the perilous business of hibernation. As the hedgehog is larger with more bulk than most insectivores it sometimes finds itself in trouble if the food is not available. Many animals that feed on invertebrate life rely on being able to find vast quantities of insects and other small creatures. I always used to believe what is written everywhere such as: Author Unknown Why do hedgehogs hibernate? Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.

Hedgehogs hibernate