Interview with Mrs Hanna, an expert concerning hedgehogs

This interview was conducted by Paula Schweinberger, ViLE e.V., Germany

In the picture you can see her with a hedgehog in her arms. This is a very unusual sight because hedgehogs are nocturnal animals hardly to be seen in daylight. This animal however was brought to her as a tiny ill baby. She fed it and managed to bring it through the winter. It got so familiar with her that it doesn’t fall asleep in winter, so she has to take care of it all through the year. She is often invited to kindergartens or to schools with it where the kids enjoy seeing it and learning about this species.

Last winter (2010) she had about fifty hedgehogs in her house with a small shed. People bring the tiny animals – which wouldn’t survive in winter – to her, because they know she would look after them and feed them until they are big and fat enough to fall asleep and survive. Each one has to have a box of its own because they are solitary animals. If one should be ill she can consult a veterinarian who then helps without payment.

When the animals wake up in spring Mrs Hanna is happy and proud to have preserved helpless creatures from starving. With the help of other people she finds suitable places in the natural environment of hedgehogs.

Why does she undertake such efforts? She feels that this endangered species which exists since millions of years on our planet but never learnt to cope with our civilization should survive. If alarmed hedgehogs don’t run away but roll themselves into a ball to protect themselves with their spines this means on our roads: they are run over by cars.

Mrs Hanna is deeply convinced that the great variety of animals and plants in nature should be carefully preserved for future generations.

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