🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.
Showing posts with label snakes alive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snakes alive. Show all posts

Sunday 14 February 2016

Hedgehog lore and legends - Snakes alive!

Are hedgehogs in danger from snakes?


It's not surprising that such a strange-looking little animal as a hedgehog should be the subject of some extraordinary legends and beliefs. Strange hedgehog activities such as running in circles and 'self-anointing' (smearing their spines with their own frothy saliva), are definitely fact, not fiction, through we don't know why they do these things.

But there are also a number of intriguing legends about hedgehogs, most of them dating back to the distant past.

The myth, particularly prevalent in South Africa, that snakes have been found with hedgehogs in their stomaches, is a long stretch of the imagination. It would be quite impossible for a snake, no matter how big, to swallow a rolled-up hedgehog.

A hedgehog under attack from a snake would immediate roll up and protect itself with its bristling spines. If the snake persists, it is likely to damage itself severely on the spines, and the hedgehog may seize the opportunity to sink its teeth into the snake and roll up again. In the end, the hedgehog often makes a meal of its former enemy!

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