Hedgehog love season doesn't keep Germans to sleep. Signal boom for moans and screams

During the mating rituals, hedgehogs are particularly noisy: citizens are frightened to the point of calling the police

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

La love season of hedgehogs is making nights difficult for Germans, awakened in the middle of the night by moans and screams.

Gardens, parks and sports fields in this period are in fact the ideal place for the hedgehog joust, the mating ritual of these cute animals, which apparently have a lot of fun, so much so as to frighten the citizens who even go so far as to call the police.

I ricci they know how to be particularly noisy during their nocturnal mating: these animals are capable of emit a wide range of sounds which include very loud whistles and screams and during mating rituals growl loudly even for hours.

So many night reports to the authorities by citizens who they mistake the screams of hedgehogs for human moans or for noises of wild animals in distress.

Yet everyone knows the period that goes from April to September matches the love season of hedgehogs, so much so that there is even a hashtag that leaves no doubt: #igelsex.

Although the phenomenon of coupling of curls is known and is repeated every summer, the Germans seem to be convinced that they are dealing with poorly educated and very passionate fellow citizens or with seriously injured and dying animals, and they clog up the police switchboards with concern.

The authorities, forced to report, draw up definitely witty verbal: the police of Düsseldorf in 2003, following the call for "thunderous noises in a garden" reported that it was "two hedgehogs who were having fun and who will have offspring in a few weeks ".

There is no need to be alarmed therefore and a little more knowledge of the animal kingdom would save the cops from unnecessary work.

Experts urge citizenship a do not disturb the activity of curls as the population of these small animals is constantly decreasing.

La torch light or car headlights and the noise scare the hedgehogs, which often they interrupt the mating to escape.

On curls also:

• Hedgehogs appear in new warning signs for small wild animals
• Hedgehog: I found one! What to do and when to help
• Extremely rare specimen of albino hedgehog saved in the Modena area

Tatiana Maselli