Raleigh News & Observer Logo

A prickly relationship | Raleigh News & Observer

×
  • E-edition
    • Customer Service
    • Support
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Sponsorships
    • Stay connected
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Facebook
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Social Media Directory
    • N&O Store
    • Buy Photos
    • Databases
    • Archives
    • Newsletters

    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Health
    • Local
    • North Carolina
    • Nation/World
    • Science
    • Thumbs Up
    • Traffic
    • Weather
    • Weird News
    • All News
    • Counties
    • Durham County
    • Johnston County
    • Orange County
    • Wake County
    • All Sports
    • Baseball
    • Canes
    • College
    • Columns & Blogs
    • High Schools
    • NASCAR & Auto Racing
    • NBA
    • NFL
    • NHL
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Panthers
    • Soccer
    • Schools
    • Duke
    • East Carolina
    • NC State
    • North Carolina
    • All Politics
    • The North Carolina Influencer Series
    • State Politics
    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • PolitiFact
    • PolitiFact NC
    • Rob Christensen
    • Under the Dome
    • All Business
    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • Health Care
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Shop Talk
    • Stocks Center
    • Technology
    • All Living
    • Video Now
    • Best-Kept Secrets
    • Blogs
    • Celebrations
    • Comics
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fitness
    • Food
    • Games and Puzzles
    • Home and Garden
    • Horoscopes
    • Mouthful
    • Past Times
    • Pets
    • Religion
    • Travel
    • Video Now
    • Arts News
    • ArtsNow
    • Books
    • Contests
    • Dining
    • Entertainment
    • Games
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Nightlife
    • Television
    • On the Beat
    • Happiness is a Warm TV
    • All Opinion
    • Columnists
    • Dwane Powell
    • Editorials
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Letters
    • Opinion Shop Blog
    • Other Views
    • Submit a Letter
  • Obituaries

    • Advertise with us
    • Place Ad
    • Apartments
    • Cars
    • Homes
    • Jobs
    • Legals
    • Obits/In Memoriams
    • Weddings
    • Today's Daily Deal
    • Special Sections
    • Today's Circulars
    • Rewards
    • Photo Store
  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Legals

Books

A prickly relationship

By Susan Salter Reynolds - Los Angeles Times

    ORDER REPRINT →

December 07, 2008 12:00 AM

Hugh Warwick is an ecologist who has spent 20 years of his life working with hedgehogs. They are cute, Warwick admits, but something beyond cuteness inspires passion, even obsession in hedgehog devotees. (Britain, God love 'er, is apparently full of "little hedgehog hospitals doing an amazing job with limited resources.")

This is a book about our relationship with the hedgehog; no other animal, Warwick writes, allows us to get so close.

Warwick describes the biology, physiology and general behavior of hedgehogs (rolling up in a ball to discourage predators, the perils and beauty of the nocturnal life and their relationship with fleas).

Warwick is delightfully nerdy: "Love did not blossom immediately," he writes of his fascination. "I suppose in the beginning we had more of a friendship and a working relationship. But I want to jump forward to the juicy bits."

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

These include, as you can imagine, an unusual definition of the term "juicy bits," including scientists who eat their quarry, the bizarre behavior of hedgehog hunters and mating rituals (human and hedgehog) in the Orkney Islands.

There's more than a whiff of the legendary naturalist Gerald Durrell here -- his humor, affection and never-ending curiosity. "We are most willing to change ourselves in the grip of true love," Warwick writes. "True love, not the sort that tends to infect our appreciation of the natural world. ... Sentimental love is superficial; it does not offer much."

Hedgehogs in love, Warwick simplifies to make a point, can't get close to each other without hurting each other, so they back away. In a similar fashion, we humans can't get close to the natural world without harming it: "The dilemma we face is in trying to get close enough to the wild without corrupting it out of existence."

  Comments  

Videos

Raleigh architect Frank Harmon sketches to see, and remember

New NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green on becoming a writer

View More Video

Trending Stories

John Harris warned his father about legal red flags involving Bladen operative

February 20, 2019 02:13 PM

Zion Williamson injured during Duke-UNC game after foot blows through shoe

February 20, 2019 09:53 PM

Zion Williamson injured as No. 1 Duke falls to No. 8 UNC

February 20, 2019 11:11 PM

Transgender woman has asked to be moved from a men’s prison. So far, NC has said no.

February 20, 2019 01:42 PM

Three observations from No. 8 North Carolina’s 88-72 road win over No. 1 Duke

February 21, 2019 02:18 AM

Read Next

Books

These books-turned-movies – including ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ – are coming to screens near you

By MOIRA MACDONALD The Seattle Times

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM

The worlds of books and movies collide daily on my desk – and on the 2019 movie release schedule, which is full of adaptations of classic and current novels. Here's a sampling of what's coming soon, to whet the literary appetite:

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE BOOKS

Books

Seattle author Tara Conklin’s ‘The Last Romantics’ is a lovely page-turner, shadowed with loss

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

Book review: John Rebus butts in on Edinburgh case in new Ian Rankin novel

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

Review: ‘The Museum of Modern Love,’ by Heather Rose

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

This gorgeous book on NASA’s glory days will inspire the astronaut in all of us

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

In ‘Trailblazer,’ Dorothy Butler Gilliam shares her struggles – and successes – as The Washington Post’s first black female reporter

February 20, 2019 03:00 AM
Four day book festival puts spotlight on authors from NC and beyond

Books

Four day book festival puts spotlight on authors from NC and beyond

February 19, 2019 12:40 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Raleigh News & Observer App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Triangletoday.com
  • Legal Notices
Advertising
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Our Ads
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • N&O Store
  • N&O Photos
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Report News
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use


Back to Story