A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia and no living species native to the Americas. However, the extinct genus Amphechinus was once present in North America.
The European hedgehog, also known as the West European hedgehog or common hedgehog, is a hedgehog species native to Europe from Iberia and Italy northwards into Scandinavia and westwards into the British Isles. It is a generally common and widely distributed species that can survive across a wide range of habitat types. It is a well-known species, and a favourite in European gardens, both for its endearing appearance and its preference for eating a range of garden pests. While populations are currently stable across much of its range, it is declining severely in Great Britain where it is now Red Listed, meaning that it is considered to be at risk of local extinction. Outside its native range, the species was introduced to New Zealand during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyphla has been shown to be monophyletic; Soricomorpha is paraphyletic because both Soricidae and Talpidae share a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with solenodons.
The Amur hedgehog, also called the Manchurian hedgehog, is a hedgehog similar to the European hedgehog in appearance and behaviour, although it is more lightly coloured. It is native to Amur Oblast and Primorye in Russia, Manchuria in China, and the Korean Peninsula. Like other hedgehogs, it uses scent and hearing while looking for prey, and the name "hedgehog" refers to the pig-like grunts it makes as it forages.
Erinaceus is a genus of hedgehog from the family of Erinaceidae. There are four main species of Erinaceus. The range is all across Europe, throughout the Middle East, parts of Russia, and extending to northern China and Korea. The European hedgehog has been introduced to New Zealand.
The wildlife of Azerbaijan consists of its flora and fauna and their natural habitats.
The northern white-breasted hedgehog is a species of hedgehog native to Eurasia.
White-breasted hedgehog may refer to:
The European hedgehog was brought to New Zealand by British colonists in the 1870s as a way to deal with insect pests that had hitched a ride on crops the colonists had brought from their homeland for farming. Long regarded as a gardener’s helper in Britain, the introduction of Hedgehogs seemed a good solution to the lack of natural predators for these pests in New Zealand. They have since spread throughout the country, being absent only in inhospitable environments. The general public has a benign attitude to them in urban environments, but conservationists and regional councils regard them as pests, as they prey on native animals and compete with them for food.
The Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in the lands around the Aegean Sea. The ecoregion covers most of mainland Greece, the Greek Aegean Islands, the western coast of Turkey, the southern Vardar river valley in North Macedonia, the southern Struma river valley at the extreme south-western corner of Bulgaria.
Ajameti Managed Reserve is a protected area in the Baghdati Municipality, Zestafoni Municipality region of Georgia. It protects famous oaks of Ajameti and other local flora. Some of the trees are from 120 to 200 years old. Reserve also protects local fauna.
