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These days, flat hedgehogs are all too often seen on west Cork roads and, no doubt, on roads all over Ireland.
Young hedgehogs, at the behest of their genes, abandon home comforts and maternal milk when they are about six weeks old.
They and their siblings, which may number as many as five or six, set off into the world and whatever adventures may befall them. While a flat young hedgehog is a sorry sight, some comfort may be found in the fact that females generally produce two litters annually, averaging about 10 newcomers in all.
Spiny creatures that they are, one might ask how do they emerge into life without damaging the internal organs of their dam? Nature has, of course, engineered a solution: the spines are covered with a skin which begin to bristle forth, as white hairs, only some minutes after birth.
Within two weeks, the white hairs are swamped by brown spines, which grow, wave after wave, and harden to engulf them. Equipped with this body armour, the hoglets, after a month, are taken out for walks by their mother and, I am told, the sight of a female leading her spiny, big-eyed brood (like all young creatures, the eyes are disproportionately
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