Hedgehogs, like humans, have a thing for ice cream. But because hedgehogs lack the ability to tackle a pint of Cherry Garcia with a spoon, they can only satisfy their ice cream cravings by, say, licking the insides of discarded McFlurry cups.

Sadly, in so doing, an astonishing number of hedgehogs in Europe get their spikey little noggins stuck in the McFlurry’s lid and starve to death.

I applauded the British Hedgehog Preservation Society back in September of 2006 when they succeeded in getting McDonald’s to redesign the McFlurry lids after “untold numbers” of British hedgehogs had died in this unfortunate way.

Now, MSNBC reports that Germany is following suit:

Two years ago, McDonald’s Germany was contacted by BUND, one of Germany’s largest environmental groups, which reported that up to 100 hedgehogs had been killed as a result of being caught in the lid holes of the popular McFlurry treat.   

“There were no solid statistics on hedgehog deaths caused by McFlurry lids,” said Alexander Schramm, a McDonald’s spokesman in Munich. “But, because our company had confronted the same problem in the U.K. in 2006 and had already changed the product line, we decided to do the same in Germany.”

The re-design process included several different lid-sizes and cover flaps, which could prevent hedgehogs and other small animals from getting stuck inside the containers and, as a result, starving to death.

I’m not sure why it took two years to make a change they had already implemented in Britain, but, hey, better late than never.  Thankfully, this is one problem I don’t think we have in the United States–but only “˜cause we haven’t got so many hedgehogs.

Learn more about these ice-cream loving critters at hedgehogwelfare.org.