Move your mouse over the genus names to show its locations on the map: Genus Erinaceus    Erinaceus europaeus    Erinaceus concolor    Erinaceus amurensis Genus Paraechinus    Paraechinus aethiopicus    Paraechinus hypomelas    Paraechinus microplus     Genus Aterlix    Atelerix algirus    Atelerix albiventris    Atelerix frontalis    Atelerix sclateri Genus Hemiechinus    Hemiechinus auritus    Hemiechinus collaris    Hemiechinue dauuricus    Hemiechinue hughi Hedgehogs are not found in the Americas, so they are not shown on the map.

Hedgehogs in Britain

Hedgehogs are common throughout the British Isles and Ireland - their numbers are estimated to be in the region of two million. They are found on many of the smaller islands because they were taken their by humans - sometimes intentionally as pest controllers. The only areas where hedgehogs are not found are on a few of the Scottish islands.

Hedgehogs like to live where their food - largely insects and soil animals - is abundant, and where there are plenty of broad-leaved trees, whose dead leaves they need for making their nests. This means that British hedgehogs are widely found in forest and traditional farmland, and also in the most artificial habitat, suburbia. They are scarce in wetlands, conifer forests, moorland and mountains, where there are few nest sites and often little food. But the hedgehog is running out of space as the bricks and concrete spread across our countryside. Although it is better able to cope in built-up areas than many other animals, it needs parks, gardens, cemeteries and other open spaces in which to forage and nest. If these get built over or tidied up too much, hedgehogs will die out.

The future is uncertain for the hedgehog with the countryside changing at such a great rate. The conversion of pasture to arable land means that crops will be sprayed with chemicals, which destroy insects, slugs and worms - the main part of the hedgehog's diet. The removal of hedges and clearance of small patches of waste ground will destroy many good sites for hedgehog hibernation nests. But as long as hedgehogs prosper in gardens in suburbs, the future is not entirely black.

Hedgehogs in Australasia

The hedgehog was taken to New Zealand by colonists starting in the 1870s. As these people intended to spend the rest of their lives in New Zealand, they took hedgehogs to make themselves feel at home. The hedgehogs took well to their new environment - to such an extent that they are now more common than in Britain. However, nobody must have had the same idea when emigrating to Australia or America as hedgehogs are not found naturally in either of these countries.

Four different genera

The Spanish hedgehog, genus Erinaceus is seen in its typical rocky habitat. It is paler and larger than its British counterpart - although it is still classed as the same species.
	The deserts of the former Soviet Union are home to the genus Hemiechinus. All desert hedgehogs have long ears.

The African hedgehog, Aterelix, is found in deserts in the southern part of the continent, and has black and white spines and a striped face.
	This is another African hedgehog, Paraechinus, found mostly in the north of the continent and in parts of the Middle East.

Town and country

While only one species of hedgehog is found in the UK, it would be easy to thing otherwise. Hedgehogs live in a wide diversity of environments, ranging from city centres to unpopulated countryside. Between these two extremes are then several other variables that affects the hedgehog's environment - including the terrain, availability and type of food, predators and most importantly human influence. These differences explain why despite being the same species, country hedgehogs would find it difficult to survive in towns, and country hedgehogs would find country life disorientating.

It appears that town-dwelling hedgehogs lead a much less healthy life than their countryside counterparts. Urban creatures have a heavy parasite burden including many fleas. In comparison, country hedgehogs are largely parasite free - except when they are sick or injured. Country hedgehogs also have to put up with less pollution and less stress from human disturbance. It has been observed that mothers in towns have on average larger litter sizes - which is perhaps a reflection of the difficulty of survival in the town. Town hedgehogs rarely get enough natural nourishment and have had to learn to scavenge from human rubbish. Added to this is the pollution which gets into the food chain and will slowly poison the hedgehog. he urban hedgehog's problems are then compounded by it having very small territories. It will be affected more by local sources of pollution, and it will also result in a limited number of male and female hedgehogs coming into contact. This leaves a small gene pool and so increases the chance of inbreeding.

It is not all good news for country hedgehogs either. Those that live in areas of arable farming can face worse conditions than those that live in the town. Farmers pump huge quantities of chemicals onto their crops that kills much of the hedgehogs' food. If a hedgehog manages to sufficiently feed itself, the toxic chemicals that have built up in the food chain will slowly poison it. Chemicals are not the only factor putting hedgehogs at risk. Farmers now use huge machinery that is most efficient in large fields. This has led to the destruction of hedgerows - which are not only the homes to the hedgehog, but also to its food source. It is therefore unsurprising that hedgehogs are rare, if not totally absent from areas of intensive arable farming.