Happy Thought for 22 November 2024

Have a Happy Thought:  

TIL (Today I Learned) that hedgehogs will frown before they curl up into a ball of spiky defensiveness. And hedgehog researchers love this trait because it gives them enough warning to back off a little bit (if they don’t want the hedgehog to hide behind its spines). Also because it’s adorable. 

 

Here’s a fairly relaxed hedgehog. Look especially at the spines/spikes above its (adorable little) face – see how relaxed and smooth they are? 

 

Image: (c) Ly – some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) 

 

Meanwhile, this hedgehog is a little bit bothered by being picked up, and has started to activate its frown muscles. 

 

Image: (c) Sonia Vaygen – some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) 

 

 

This hog is definitely on its way to a good frown. 

 

Image: (c) internet_viking – some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) 

 

That frown will probably lead to the one thing that most people know about hedgehogs, which is the ball of spikes. 

 

Image: (c) hellenemb – some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) 

 

 

Finally, because AI-generated images are still so very creepy, and because I saw this you have to, too – I will leave you with this AI-generated image of... a... “hedgehog”???  

 

Cursed Image from: deepdreamgenerator.com 

 

Thanks to the guests on the hedgehog episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage for bringing us this wonderful fact. And thanks to anyone that uses iNaturalist and puts their photos up with shareable licenses – it helps not just us, it also helps the scientific community to be able to access and use these photos for non-commercial purposes! 


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