--- title: Hedgehogs: spines, hibernation and how to help them — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Hedgehogs: spines, hibernation and how to help them», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A hedgehog wears about five thousand spines, and each one is a stiff, hollow hair. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Hedgehogs: spines, hibernation and how… # Hedgehogs: spines, hibernation and how to help them Lesson 214 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/0/) — A hedgehog wears about five thousand spines, and each one is a stiff, hollow hair. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/1/) — When it is scared, a ring of muscle pulls its skin tight like the string on a drawstring bag, and the hedgehog becomes a prickly ball that most animals give up on. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/2/) — At night it snuffles and grunts through gardens hunting beetles, worms, caterpillars and slugs, walking a couple of kilometres, and in winter, when food runs out, it hibernates in a nest of leaves. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/3/) — Hedgehogs are getting rarer in Britain, so small things matter: a hole in a fence, a ramp in a pond, a bonfire pile checked before it is lit, and water instead of milk. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/4/) — A hedgehog has about five thousand brown and cream spines, which are hollow hairs; it cannot shoot or throw them, and a muscle pulls its skin tight to roll it into a ball. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/5/) — Milk is bad for hedgehogs, which cannot digest it and can get very ill; a dish of water and meaty cat or dog food are safe. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/6/) — Hedgehogs hunt at night for beetles, worms, caterpillars and slugs, which makes them friends of gardeners, and one can walk a couple of kilometres a night. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/7/) — Hedgehogs are night animals, so one out in the daytime may be ill or in trouble, and it is best to call a wildlife rescue for advice. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/8/) — In winter hedgehogs hibernate: the body cools and the heart slows right down to save energy while food is short, and they must be fat enough in autumn to survive. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/9/) — Hedgehogs often crawl into piles of leaves and wood, so a bonfire pile should be checked before lighting or, better, built on the day. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/10/) — Hedgehogs travel through many gardens to find food and mates, so neighbours cut holes about the size of a CD in their fences to make hedgehog highways. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/11/) — Slug pellets can poison hedgehogs that eat poisoned slugs, and hedgehogs are getting rarer in Britain. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/12/) — Sometimes a hedgehog chews something with a new smell and spreads foamy spit all over its spines; this is called self-anointing, and scientists are still not sure why it does it. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/13/) — Hedgehogs snore, snuffle and grunt, and they got their name because they root about in hedges and grunt like pigs; their babies are called hoglets. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/214-hedgehogs-spines-hibernation-and-how-to-help-them/14/) — Hedgehogs can swim, but they get stuck in ponds with steep sides, so a ramp or a few stones at the edge lets them climb out. - ← previous: [Ducks, geese and farm myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/213-ducks-geese-and-farm-myths/) - next →: [Foxes and squirrels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/215-foxes-and-squirrels/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)