The young born each year, in litters ranging from one to eleven, remain with their mothers for only four to seven weeks before heading out on their own. These solitary animals typically couple only for mating. They remain active all year in more temperate locations. In deserts, they sleep through heat and drought in a similar process called aestivation. They usually sleep in this position during the day and awaken to search for food at night. If attacked they will curl into a prickly and unappetizing ball that deters most predators. Hedgehogs have a coat of stiff, sharp spines. While on the hunt, they rely upon their senses of hearing and smell because their eyesight is weak. Some people consider hedgehogs useful pets because they prey on many common garden pests. As a hedgehog picks its way through the hedges it emits piglike grunts-thus, the hedgehog. These animals root through hedges and other undergrowth in search of the small creatures that compose the bulk of their diet-insects, worms, centipedes, snails, mice, frogs, and snakes. The hedgehog was named because of its peculiar foraging methods.
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