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| | | The Living World is a gentle, weekend natural history programme, which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate wild encounters with British wildlife. In this series Lionel Kelleway watches the blackbird, tracks hedgehogs at night, looks at terns and explores Yarner Wood.
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| | PRESENTER | | | |
|  | | | | "The Living World is the next best thing to being there. Our contributors are skilled naturalists who are able to reveal those fascinating facts about animals and plants that you don't always find in books. It's like having a personal guided tour of the countryside, without needing to leave the house."
Lionel Kelleway
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Hedgehogs: Playing the Field
You might know it as a graineog. Or perhaps you’re more familiar with furzepig. Call it what you will, the end result is still the same: a small mammal that has been the inspiration and motivation for almost as many stories and myths as the spines on its back.
Spring is a busy time for hedgehogs. They come out of hibernation and head straight into the breeding season. It’s a time for snorting, head-butting, ill-tempered foreplay and many spiky rebuffs. Very few courtships are ever consummated, and fewer still end in pregnancy.
Despite the numerous accounts little is understood about hedgehog behaviour during courtship or its biological significance.
Lionel Kelleway joins hedgehog expert Dr Nigel Reeve from the University of Surrey Roehampton and Richard Young from the Central Science Laboratory in South Gloucestershire to track down some radio-tagged hedgehogs as they gear up for a night of courting on a local playing field.
As the twilight deepens and the hunt begins, Lionel Kellaway and Nigel Reeve attempt to shed light on the bizarre ritual of hedgehog courtship, and analyses some charming hedgehog myths along the way. | | |
RELATED LINKS
The Mammal Society Hedgehog Factsheet
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Today: South Uist Hedgehogs
Today: Read the Hedgehog emails
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