Consider, if you will, the hedgehog's most defining feature - the sharp array of spines. Nature is amazing - all over the world different species have evolved the same way of defending themselves. Convergent evolution - the porcupine (a rodent) and the echidna (a monotreme) both grew spines defence separately from the hedgehog.

So what are the spines made of? I have done hundreds of talks - and in primary schools I get some of the most wonderful answers to this question ... genuine responses have included: wood, metal, plastic, bone, brambles and titanium. 

The real answer, I think, is more amazing .... they are made of keratin; in effect they are highly specialised hairs! The fact that this is also the stuff from which rhino horn and pangolin scales are made should leave us hoping that the deluded beige ladles who kill for profit don't get a taste for the healing properties of hedgehog spines!

You will see in the photo - how sharp the spines are compared with a pin - but also see how they are shaped. The bulb that is embedded in the skin, the narrow neck thickening, the slight curve - all crucial. That narrowing and curving is all to do with the shock absorbing nature of the spines. If they were like pins - a hedgehog falling would become self-impaled. 

So what has this to do with the petition? Nothing directly - it is more of a 'thank you' for your support - a snippet from the hedgehog world - something to share over lunch with a friend - like - how many spines on an adult hedgehog?

And it is also a request - movement in the petition is s....l.....o.....w at the moment and I really want to get this up to half a million soon - ideally before Brexit .... so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - dig through your contacts, find people who have not been prodded into action - and keep spreading the word, thank you!

ps - around 6,000

pps - beige ladles ... I do quite a lot of radio and while at the BBC in Oxford I asked the producer what words were off limits when talking about a government minister ... apparently twazzock (even though no definition was available) was too much, so I resorted to kitchen utensils!