The humble hedgehog has been selected by donors to the German Wild Animal Foundation as the country’s animal of the year for 2024.
With an expression so endearing it's easy to understand why - the humble hedgehog, more specifically the Common Hedgehog, has been voted as German Animal of the Year 2024.
Winning the votes of donors to the German Wild Animal Foundation, the hedgehog beat the squirrel and red fox to the winning spot this year.
The foundation used the opportunity to highlight how the nocturnal animal’s natural habitat is becoming increasingly threatened in Germany. Many landscapes that were once covered in hedges, worm-filled fields and shrubbery have now been converted to agriculture, leaving an increasing number of hedgehogs without a hedge home.
With fewer shrubberies in which to take up countryside lodgings, some hedgehogs are turning to city life, where gardens and green areas provide some habitat for the animals.
It is not currently known how many hedgehogs there are in Germany, but experts fear their decline, which has resulted in the animal being added to the pre-red-warning list for mammals in Germany.
For hedgehogs, a new threat comes with the more widespread use of robotic lawnmowers, which people sometimes leave on at nighttime, when hedgehogs are most active. The creatures are thought to walk multiple kilometres each night in search of food, such as slugs, caterpillars and earwigs.
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