RSPB Spotlight Hedgehogs

Much loved . . . but about to be lost? The hedgehog was voted Britain's favorite animal in 2013, yet numbers in the British countryside have halved this century. Generations of children have been captivated by Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-winkle and Romans feted hedgehogs as weather prophets, yet many cultures routinely consume hedgehog meat for medicinal uses as varied as alleviating arthritis and arresting impotence.

Unmistakably—and uniquely, in European terms—garbed in spines...