Hedgehog hibernation is being disrupted by climate change, with warmer autumns and winters causing premature emergence and inappropriate fat deposition timing that threatens survival.
Hedgehog hibernation welfare illustrates how climate change creates welfare crises for individual animals through disrupted biological timing. Hedgehogs evolved in climates where autumn food abundance was followed by reliable cold winter temperatures that triggered hibernation appropriately. Warmer autumns disrupt this pattern by extending the active season while reducing the urgency to build adequate fat reserves, and by causing premature waking during winter warm periods when food is unavailable. A hedgehog that wakes from hibernation in January during a mild spell burns irreplaceable fat reserves foraging unsuccessfully before re-entering torpor - potentially with insufficient reserves to survive until spring. Wildlife carers increasingly supplement late-season hedgehogs to ensure adequate hibernation weight.