I had to laugh at this report.
A man was so infuriated by the noise of “loud panting” coming from under the stairs at the entrance to his house that he called the cops at around 11pm, a police spokesperson said on Thursday.
Having searched the premises from top to bottom, the police finally discovered two very unusual suspects.
A pair of hedgehogs had been mating in the cosy little spot for about 20 minutes.
But, had they not been caught, the irate man would have been disturbed for a good while longer.
An expert from the veterinary department of Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich explained that the act normally “lasts several hours”.
But why were the animals making such a racket?
“Hedgehogs groan loudly during the act [...] and the male makes most of the noise”, the animal specialist added.
So that explains why the “suspicious sounds” were so excessively frustrating to the resident.
Luckily the aggravated man wasn’t disturbed for too long. The pair of hedgehogs fled immediately in the light of the policemen's torches.
There's more at the link.
Reminds me of the old riddle:
Q: Why is the relationship between the President and Congress like the mating of hedgehogs?
A: It's one prick against hundreds.
Uh-huh . . .
Peter
2 comments:
its not only mating ..
Hedgehogs don't have clear territories - they wander around a lot and their wandering areas can (and usually do) overlap. Its not predictable what will happen when they meet - somtines nothing, somtimes they quarrel.
When they meet over an interesting bit of food (like the bowl of catfood on our terrace) they can either share it peacefully, or one takes offense at the others presence. That usually sounds like a little steam engine huffing and puffing, and may be accompanied with ramming the other hedgehog. That can take a long time (but not as long as mating)
I like the little buggers ... they are fun to watch. We have three in our garden and if we are lucky there will be some young ones this month ..
The other old joke is
How do hedgehogs reproduce.
Very carefully.
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