They are quite helpful in gardens or parks. Their back is covered by many 2-3 centimeter spines. In case of danger they form a ball, showing spines all over to a potential attacker. Therefore they haven't got any bigger natural enemies. For that reason they can also act quite loud.
Many people discover hedgehogs in their garden cause they think theres a burglar out there.
And, no hedgehogs are not porcupines. E.g. they have much shorter spines. On the sad side, hedgehogs are a species in danger nowadays. This site containts a nice list of hedgehog links. Back to Doris and Frank's main page .