# Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog — Just So Stories character guide

> Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog in Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Stickly-Prickly, Hedgehog, the Hedgehog

**First appearance:** 0006-the-beginning-of-the-armadillos

## Snapshot

A hedgehog who answers the Painted Jaguar's questions with deliberate nonsense, then curls into a ball of prickles when the paw comes down.

## Who they are

Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog lives in the turbid Amazon alongside Slow-and-Solid Tortoise, and together they have worked out that a confused predator is a harmless one. When the Painted Jaguar arrives reciting his mother's tangled instructions, the Hedgehog cheerfully scrambles the words further, offering himself to be 'scooped' and then rolling into a spine-covered ball at the crucial moment. His mischief matters because it shows the story's real game: not who is fastest, but who can keep the other guessing long enough to escape.

## In the story

### [The Beginning of the Armadillos](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/the-beginning-of-the-armadillos)

Lives on the Amazon banks, eats snails, and uses clever wordplay to confuse the Jaguar. Learns to swim and becomes part of the Armadillo.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/stickly_prickly_hedgehog
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters