answered:
I think that learning that the Romani word for Hedgehog is Hotchiwichi is still my favourite moment of language. It feels nice in your mouth to say.
On the other hand, learning that the Romany people ate hedgehogs by letting them turn into defensive balls and then encasing them in clay and cooking them in the fire ashes makes me sad for the hotchiwitchi in question, while admiring the brilliance of the technique.
I miss Hedgehogs. There were an estimated 20-30 million of them in the U.K. when I was growing up. Now the population has dropped to perhaps a million.
Hedgehog numbers plummet by half in UK countryside since 2000 Longterm decline is blamed on loss of hedgerows and insect prey but urban hedgehogs may offer a glimmer of hope, says a new report the Guardian