Day 71/183: HedgehogS

[nanila]

Watch on YouTube

[YouTube video, 00:19 long, infrared capture of hedgehogs]

Breaking news: Two hedgies! TWO! This is very exciting. I think this circling nose-dance is their mating ritual. Our daily footage examination yielded several videos, of which this is the best one, of the hedgehogs doing this in slow-motion over the course of about 45 minutes. This is the closest capture the camera got.

If it means hoglets in four weeks, I shall be over the moon.

Comments

[corvidology]

It is mating and if you could hear them it's loud... and a bit hysterical with a lot of huffing and coughing type of noises.

You need a careful mating ritual when the female could do the male serious damage with her spines is she's not very cooperative.

[nanila]

Yep, you can hear the huffing and puffing on the YouTube video if you turn the volume up all the way.

Apparently the males will fight over the females, so maybe we will also catch a duel at some point!

[cactus_rs]

Hoglets!!

[nanila]

YES. Fingers crossed for a nice healthy hoglet litter. :)

[cmcmck]

I never tire of hedgepigs! :o)

[nanila]

Likewise! The joy of the ritual checking of the IR camera's memory card never palls.

[silveradept]

Many hedgehogs!

[nanila]

Fingers crossed, many hedgehogs are soon to be!

[holyschist]

Your hedgies are my favorite thing on the internet! I hope you get hoglets!

(I think of all European wildlife, hedgehogs are the ones I'm most envious of - we don't really have anything that fills that niche in the U.S. Porcupines are great, of course, but generally don't cutely zoom and snuffle around your backyard...)

[ursula]

Thanks for sharing the hedgehog camera! It has been really great.