50 free Hedgehog trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
49 free Hedgehog trivia questions with answers. Hedgehogs top Britain's favourite-animal polls, star in Beatrix Potter books and a Sega franchise, and even lend their name to a gene that shapes your fingers. This hedgehog trivia quiz covers all of it: the biology (what the spines are made of, how cold a hibernating hedgehog gets, why they froth at the mouth and lick their own backs), the 17 wild species from the Sahara to Siberia, pet African pygmy hedgehogs, and the folklore that stretches from Pliny the Elder to Groundhog Day. The set runs from easy questions a child could answer (what is a baby hedgehog called?) to expert ones about anti-submarine weapons, Schopenhauer and Soviet animation. It suits a family quiz night, a classroom nature unit or anyone who has just adopted a hedgehog and wants to know more. Every answer was checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source before publishing, and each question carries a citation, so you can trust what you learn here.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A hedgehog's spines are hollow hairs stiffened with which protein?
Keratin
The same protein forms human hair and fingernails. Unlike porcupine quills, hedgehog spines are not barbed and do not detach easily.
Q 02Roughly how many species of hedgehog exist in the wild?
17
They are spread across five genera in Europe, Asia and Africa. New species are still occasionally described from Asia.
Q 03Which continent has no native hedgehogs at all?
Australia
There are also no living species native to the Americas. Wherever they were introduced abroad, they tended to become pests.
Q 04What does a hedgehog do when it feels threatened?
Rolls into a tight spiny ball
The furry face, feet and belly are tucked inside so only spines face outward. Powerful muscles along the back raise the spines.
Q 05What is a baby hedgehog called?
Hoglet
Newborns are blind and their quills are covered by a protective membrane. Some keepers also call them piglets.
Q 06When a hedgehog meets a strong new smell it chews the source and spreads what over its spines?
Frothy saliva
The behaviour is called self-anointing and starts as young as 15 days old. Nobody is sure why; scent camouflage and toxin defence are the leading theories.
Q 07During hibernation a hedgehog's body temperature drops from around 30-35 °C to roughly what?
2-5 °C
That is barely above freezing. Most European hedgehogs still wake at least once during winter to move nests.
Q 08Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with which small mammals?
Shrews
Both belong to the order Eulipotyphla, which also includes moles. Porcupines are rodents and only look similar.
Q 09How do gymnures, the hedgehog's closest relatives, differ from hedgehogs?
Ordinary fur, no spines
Both groups belong to the family Erinaceidae. The moonrat is also known for a powerful smell from its anal scent glands.
Q 10Which old English word for hedgehog survives today as the name of a spiny sea creature?
Urchin
Sea urchins were once called sea hedgehogs. Hedgepig is another old name for the animal.
Q 11How long is the gestation period of the African pygmy hedgehog?
Around five weeks
Larger species can take up to 58 days. Litters of the smaller species tend to be bigger, five to six young.
Q 12How are a newborn hedgehog's quills arranged at birth so that the mother is not injured?
Hidden under a fluid-filled skin membrane
The quills emerge within hours as the skin dries and shrinks. The first soft set is later shed and replaced in a process called quilling.
Q 13A protein called erinacin gives hedgehogs some natural immunity to what?
Snake venom
Q 21The British Hedgehog Preservation Society set up Hedgehog Street in 2011 with which other charity?
People's Trust for Endangered Species
By January 2025 more than 130,000 volunteers had signed up as Hedgehog Champions. The campaign's Hampton Court show garden won a gold medal in 2014.
Q 22What job does Beatrix Potter's hedgehog Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle do?
Washerwoman
The 1905 tale was inspired by Potter's own pet hedgehog and a Scottish laundress named Kitty MacDonald. Sir Frederick Ashton danced the role in a 1971 Royal Ballet film.
Q 23The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is set in which part of England?
The Lake District
Hedgehogs also share a mutated nicotinic acetylcholine receptor with pigs, honey badgers and mongooses. That is why a hedgehog will happily eat an adder.
Q 14In which US state is it illegal to keep a hedgehog as a pet?
California
Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C. also ban them. France and Italy forbid keeping wild hedgehogs.
Q 15The African pygmy hedgehog, the usual pet species, is also known by what name describing its hind feet?
Four-toed
It lacks the hallux, or big toe, on each hind foot. Pet hedgehogs became popular in the United States in the early 1980s.
Q 16To which country did colonists carry hedgehogs from Britain in the 1860s-90s, where they are now pests?
New Zealand
By the 1920s they were so numerous that game-bird hunters blamed them for smaller bags. Today they eat native insects, snails, lizards and ground-nesting birds' eggs.
Q 17Which animal is the main predator of hedgehogs in Britain?
Badger
Its long claws can prise open a rolled-up hedgehog. Hedgehogs tend to avoid areas where the two species overlap.
Q 18Which fast-food dessert's UK lid was redesigned in 2006 after hedgehogs got their heads stuck?
McDonald's McFlurry
The opening was made smaller after a public outcry. Hedgehogs were drawn in by the leftover ice cream and could not back out past their spines.
Q 19Because hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, the RSPCA says you should never leave out which drink for them?
Milk
Bread is also discouraged. Meaty cat or dog food and a shallow dish of water are the recommended garden offering.
Q 20A 'Hedgehog Highway' is a square hole cut in a garden fence. How big should it be?
13 cm x 13 cm
That is about the size of a CD case, big enough for a hedgehog but too small for most pets. Hedgehogs can roam a mile or more a night looking for food and mates.
The Newlands Valley near Keswick supplied the backgrounds for the illustrations. The little girl in the story was based on Lucie Carr, a child friend of Potter's.
Q 24Sonic the Hedgehog made his first playable appearance on the Sega Genesis in which year?
1991
The game launched in North America in June and in Japan the following month. Sega wanted a faster mascot to take on Mario.
Q 25Sonic the Hedgehog's signature colour was chosen to match what?
Sega's logo
Naoto Ohshima drew the character from a prototype by Yuji Naka. His first level, Green Hill Zone, is now one of gaming's most recognisable settings.
Q 26Who voiced Sonic in the 2020 live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film and its sequels?
Ben Schwartz
Jim Carrey played the villain Dr. Robotnik. Fan backlash over Sonic's original design forced a costly redesign before release.
Q 27The 'hedgehog' gene, whose mutants sprout spiky bristles, was first discovered in which organism?
Fruit fly
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus found it while screening for genes that pattern the fly body; they shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for the work.
Q 28Besides Sonic, mammals' other two hedgehog genes are named after which kinds of hedgehog?
Desert and Indian
Sonic hedgehog was named by postdoc Robert Riddle after his wife brought home a magazine advertising the video game. It helps pattern the limbs and digits.
Q 29Loss of Sonic hedgehog protein in an embryo can cause which condition, where the forebrain fails to divide?
Holoprosencephaly
In its most severe form it produces a single central eye. The gene is secreted by the zone of polarizing activity in the developing limb bud.
Q 30Which philosopher devised the 'hedgehog's dilemma' of hedgehogs huddling for warmth?
Arthur Schopenhauer
It appears in his 1851 Parerga and Paralipomena. Freud cited it in a 1921 footnote, and Neon Genesis Evangelion named an episode after it.