World’s oldest European hedgehog discovered in Denmark
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Loading... - Charlotte Brown
- 04 Apr 2023
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A 16-year-old European hedgehog called Thorvald has been crowned the oldest in the world, smashing the previous record by seven years.
The male hedgehog lived near the town of Silkeborg in the centre of Denmark. Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at Oxford University, who led the Danish Hedgehog Project that discovered Thorvald, said she was overwhelmed when she discovered how old he was.
“I cried tears of joy that I was holding an individual that lived for 16 years. That’s really good news for conservation. Under the right conditions, hedgehogs can live for 16 years – it’s amazing. All my colleagues were laughing at me because they thought I was being so emotional,” she said. The previous record-holder was thought to be a nine-year-old female hedgehog in Ireland, identified by researchers in 2014.
Unfortunately Thorvald died at Animal Protection Denmark’s wildlife rehabilitation centre in Silkeborg in 2016 after being set on by a dog, a common cause of hedgehog mortality. Rasmussen says dogs should be kept on leads or locked up at night when hedgehogs are out. “It’s very sad that he lived for so long and then died after being attacked by a dog.” Read More…
