Hedgehogs are full of thorns, which are enough to defend against any animal attack. I wonder if you have heard the saying that “hedgehogs are natural enemies of snakes”.
Is this statement correct? Is it also unbelievable like “the hedgehog likes to eat fruit”? In this article, you’ll learn all about hedgehogs, snakes, and their struggle to survive.
The wild is a very cruel place, hedgehogs are small, not as brave as lions, and not as strong as elephants. But because their spikes act as an effective defense, they’re not completely defenseless against predators.
Now everyone knows that hedgehogs are not vegetarians, but is it really possible that hedgehogs attack and eat snakes?
Yes, in the wild, snakes are one of the foods for all kinds of hedgehogs, especially venomous snakes! Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, they forage at night, which means that almost all encounters between snakes and hedgehogs take place after dusk, and studies have found that hedgehogs kill the most poisonous snakes. For many, it’s hard to imagine a small creature like a hedgehog preying on a snake.
Studies have found that certain hedgehogs have some immunity to specific snake venoms because their blood contains special components that neutralize the venom. For example, the venom of the arctic viper, which is very common in Europe, contains a compound that causes bleeding in anyone who comes into contact with it, but hedgehogs living in the same area have specific antibodies to these dangerous snake venoms.
In the 19th century, studies by some scientists showed that the dose of Arctic viper venom to kill a hedgehog was 35 to 40 times higher than to kill a guinea pig. The researchers believe that hedgehogs are only partially immune to snake venom, and hedgehogs are likely to die within hours of being bitten by snakes, and encounters between venomous snakes and hedgehogs have also been recorded in the wild, resulting in the death of both parties.
Maybe hedgehogs also know that they are not enough to resist snake venom completely, so when they prey on poisonous snakes, hedgehogs will not blindly attack, but first try to provoke the poisonous snakes, so that the snakes blindly rush towards themselves, and then curl up into groups to defend themselves. This makes every attack by the venomous snake hurt by the clump of hedgehogs.
With more and more wounds on the body of the poisonous snake, it will gradually lose its ability to attack. This is the moment the hedgehog has been waiting for for a long time. It will switch from defensive to offensive, tentatively bite the snake’s neck, and finally bite the snake’s vertebrae to complete the fatal blow.
Hedgehogs can generally grow up to about 2 kilograms, and their teeth are more suitable for eating insects and smaller animals, so it often takes a few hours for a hedgehog to eat a poisonous snake, and it usually eats the head of the snake first. Usually a hedgehog cannot Eat a whole venomous snake at once.
To sum up, can it be proved that hedgehogs are natural enemies of snakes?
First of all, we need to understand what is a “natural enemy” in nature? Natural enemies are organisms that kill, reduce the reproductive potential of, or reduce the numbers of other organisms. Obviously, hedgehogs cannot be natural enemies of snakes, because snakes are not the staple food of hedgehogs, and they will look for various foods at night most of the time.
What a hedgehog eats depends on what they encounter at night. Here is a list of the most common foods on the wild hedgehog’s menu, including: frogs, beetles, fungi, worms, termites, berries, snails.
Of course, hedgehogs, which seem to have such a strong defense, also have many predators in the wild, such as foxes and minks, which can attack and kill young, sick or injured hedgehogs.
Another type of predator is birds of prey, especially owls, which also forage at night, and have a special hobby for hedgehogs. They are one of the hedgehog’s natural enemies.
In addition, all kinds of canines can attack and even eat hedgehogs, especially wild dogs. It has been recorded that dingoes were able to figure out how to find holes in the hedgehog’s defenses and then stick their noses in so the hedgehog had to stretch himself out of the curled up defense, which the dingoes would then seize to kill the hedgehog.
Mustelidae is also one of the main predators of hedgehogs. Interestingly, powerful cats rarely prey on hedgehogs. Some people speculate that it may be because cats are very smart, and they have a wide range of prey, so there is no need to expend energy on preying on hedgehogs, or even get injured because of it.
As for the relationship between snakes and hedgehogs, it is more complicated. Most snakes will not actively harass hedgehogs, but some snakes will prey on hedgehogs. In general, the older the hedgehog, the harder the spines, the less likely it will be harmed by snakes, but young hedgehogs are almost capable of fighting snakes.
Although some hedgehogs are immune to snake venom, they cannot resist strangulation by snakes. So as long as the snake is big enough and the hedgehog is small enough, it will definitely be eaten by snakes, which happens quite often in the wild.
