Police officers who intervene in the middle of the night in a school near Augsburg, Germany, alerted by strange noises. Squeals, sniffles, and even howls. The German police have finally discovered the origin of these nocturnal uproars: two hedgehogs in the midst of mating.
The Guardian reports that in recent days, German police have received numerous calls from people complaining of strange noises that have kept them awake. “The suspicious noises were quickly identified as coming from a couple of hedgehogs in the middle of a mating ritual” finally relates the police report. Hedgehogs, as noisy as they are enduring in their antics (which can last several hours) are also regularly the source of calls to the police during the summer months, underlines the Guardian. Moreover, a hashtag even flourishes on the networks: “ igelsex” (“igel” means hedgehog in German).
According to a hedgehog expert from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, quoted by the British newspaper, "Hedgehogs growl loudly during the hours-long mating ritual and it is the males who do the most noise". To non-experts, their noises are often indistinguishable from humans.
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The hedgehog is a protected species in France, and particularly vulnerable. Its population has fallen in recent years. Driven out of the fields by intensive agriculture, it has taken refuge in the gardens where it faces mowers and gardening which sometimes destroys its nest. According to several British studies, in less than twenty years, hedgehog populations have lost 30% of their numbers in urban areas and up to 75% in the countryside, recalls Le Monde.
