European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus): Facts and Diet

What does a European hedgehog look like?

A European hedgehog is a rounded, short-legged animal with a pointed snout, small dark eyes and short ears that barely show above its fur. Its back and sides are covered with 5,000–7,000 spines, each about 2–3 cm (1 in) long. The spines are banded brown and cream with pale tips, which gives the animal a grizzled brown look. The face, legs and belly have coarse, grayish-brown hair instead of spines.

The spines are modified hairs made of keratin, the same protein as human hair and nails. They are hollow and strengthened by internal ridges, which keeps them light. Unlike porcupine quills, they are not barbed and do not come out easily; a hedgehog sheds and replaces them gradually over time.

Pale “blonde” hedgehogs, with creamy spines and dark eyes, are leucistic rather than true albinos. They are rare almost everywhere, but on the Channel Island of Alderney about a quarter of the population is blonde because the island’s hedgehogs descend from only a few founders.

How big is a European hedgehog?

The European hedgehog is probably the largest hedgehog species. Its weight changes a great deal with the seasons: animals are lightest in spring after hibernation and heaviest in autumn, when they put on fat for winter. Males are slightly larger than females, but this difference is small compared with the seasonal swing.

Its legs are surprisingly long, about 10 cm (4 in), but they are normally hidden under the “skirt” of spines and only become obvious when a hedgehog runs.

Habitat and range

The European hedgehog lives from Ireland, Britain and the Iberian Peninsula east through western and central Europe, north into southern Scandinavia and Finland and east to northwest Russia. It also occurs on Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. Further east it is replaced by the very similar northern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus), which has a white patch on its chest.

Hedgehogs were taken from Britain to New Zealand between the 1860s and the 1890s, and they are now found over most of both islands. They are considered an invasive pest there because they eat native insects, lizards and the eggs of ground-nesting birds.

Within its range, the hedgehog favors a patchwork of habitats: woodland edges, hedgerows, pasture, scrub, orchards, parks and gardens. It is most common up to about 600 m (2,000 ft) but has been found up to around 2,000 m (6,500 ft) in the Alps and Pyrenees. It is scarce on moorland, in marshes and in large conifer plantations, where suitable nest sites and food are hard to find. In many countries, villages and suburbs now hold some of the highest densities.

What do European hedgehogs eat?

Hedgehogs are insectivores in the broad sense: most of their diet is made up of invertebrates. Studies of droppings and stomach contents show that beetles, caterpillars, earthworms, slugs, earwigs and millipedes are the most important foods. They also take snails, moth larvae, crane-fly larvae (leatherjackets), bees and wasps.

Now and then a hedgehog eats larger prey or scraps: the eggs and chicks of ground-nesting birds, frogs, young rodents, lizards, carrion and fallen fruit. Plant material makes up only a small part of the diet. For the full picture, see what do hedgehogs eat?

A hedgehog finds food mainly by smell and hearing rather than eyesight. It shuffles along with its nose close to the ground, snuffling and grunting, and pauses often to sniff the air. In a single night it typically travels about 1–2 km (0.6–1.2 miles), and breeding males can cover up to 3 km (1.9 miles).

Behavior and daily life

European hedgehogs are solitary and nocturnal. They spend the day in a loose nest of leaves, grass and moss under brambles, hedges, log piles or sheds, and come out after dark. They are not territorial: home ranges, often around 10–20 hectares (25–50 acres) and larger for males, overlap widely, and different hedgehogs may use the same nest on different days.

When threatened, a hedgehog tucks in its head and legs and contracts a sheet of muscle that runs around its body like the drawstring of a bag. This pulls the spiny skin over the whole animal and raises the spines in all directions. The tight ball protects it from most predators, although badgers are strong enough to unroll one.

Hedgehogs also show a curious behavior called self-anointing. When they meet a strong new smell, they lick and chew the source, work up a frothy saliva and spread it onto their spines with the tongue. Its purpose is still debated; ideas include scent camouflage and making the spines more irritating to predators.

They are noisy foragers, grunting and snuffling as they feed, and they hiss and snort when disturbed. Like opossums and some mongooses, hedgehogs have some natural resistance to snake venom, but it is only partial, and a bite from an adder can still kill one.

Hibernation

The European hedgehog is one of the few true hibernators in Europe. In Britain hibernation usually runs from about October or November to March or April, starting earlier and lasting longer in colder northern regions. During this time the body temperature falls from about 35 °C (95 °F) to just a few degrees above the surroundings, and the heart rate slows to a small fraction of normal.

Winter is spent in a hibernaculum, a thick, well-insulated nest of leaves packed under brambles, roots or log piles. Hedgehogs wake briefly every week or two and often move to a new nest at least once in the winter. Starvation during hibernation, especially among young animals born late in the year, is a major cause of death. Read more in when do hedgehogs hibernate?

Reproduction and hoglets

Breeding starts soon after hedgehogs leave hibernation and runs from about April to September, with a peak in May and June. Courtship is noisy: the male circles the female for hours while she snorts and turns to face him, and rival males often butt and chase each other. Both sexes mate with several partners in a season, and the male takes no part in raising the young.

After a pregnancy of about 31–35 days, the female gives birth in a breeding nest, usually in June or July. A typical litter has four or five hoglets, though litters of two to ten have been recorded.

• Hoglets are born blind, with their first white spines hidden beneath a swollen layer of skin that shrinks within hours of birth.
• A second coat of darker spines starts to appear within about two days.
• By around 11 days old they can roll into a ball.
• They leave the nest on foraging trips with their mother at about three to four weeks and are independent by about six weeks.

Females sometimes have a second litter in late summer or early autumn, but these late young often cannot gain enough weight before winter. Hedgehogs can breed from the spring after the one in which they were born.

How long do European hedgehogs live?

Most wild European hedgehogs live only about two to three years. Many die in their first year, from cold, starvation, predators, roads or disease. A study of 388 dead hedgehogs collected in Denmark found an average age at death of about two years, with males living slightly longer than females. The same study found the oldest scientifically confirmed European hedgehog, aged 16 years. In captivity hedgehogs can reach about ten years. More detail is in how long do hedgehogs live?

Predators and threats

Healthy adult hedgehogs have few natural predators. The most important in much of western Europe is the European badger, which can unroll and eat hedgehogs and also competes with them for earthworms and beetles; hedgehogs tend to be scarce where badgers are numerous. Eurasian eagle-owls and golden eagles take hedgehogs regularly in some areas, and red foxes, pine martens and dogs kill some, especially young or weak animals.

The biggest threats today come from people:

• Roads: traffic kills large numbers of hedgehogs every year, especially males roaming in the breeding season, and busy roads also cut populations into isolated pockets.
• Habitat loss: the removal of hedgerows, field margins and rough grassland on intensively farmed land leaves less food and fewer nest sites.
• Fewer invertebrates: pesticides and changes in farming reduce the beetles, caterpillars and worms hedgehogs depend on.
• Fenced gardens and accidents: solid fences block movement, and hedgehogs are injured by garden machinery, netting and pond drowning.

Conservation status

In 2024 the IUCN reclassified the European hedgehog from Least Concern to Near Threatened, because populations appear to be declining in many of the countries where it lives. It remains widespread and can still be common in towns and villages, but numbers have fallen sharply in some farmland regions.

The decline is best documented in Great Britain. The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022 report found that rural hedgehogs had declined by between a third and three-quarters since 2000, while urban populations appeared stable or recovering. The hedgehog is listed as Vulnerable on the national Red List for British mammals, and it is protected under the Bern Convention on European wildlife. See why are hedgehogs declining? for the causes and numbers.

Hedgehogs and people

Hedgehogs have long been among Europe’s best-loved wild animals, appearing in folk tales, children’s books and national surveys of favorite species. Because so many now live alongside people, gardens matter for their survival. In Britain, the Hedgehog Street campaign, run by two charities since 2011, encourages neighbors to cut small gaps, about 13 by 13 cm (5 by 5 in), in garden fences to create “hedgehog highways” that let the animals roam between gardens.

Hedgehogs are wild animals and are protected from deliberate harm in many European countries. If you see one in your garden, the best thing to do is watch quietly from a distance and leave it undisturbed.

Common myths about hedgehogs

• Myth: hedgehogs carry apples on their spines. This story goes back to ancient writers, but there is no reliable evidence that hedgehogs collect fruit on their backs. They rarely eat fruit at all.
• Myth: hedgehogs are related to porcupines. Porcupines are rodents; hedgehogs are closer to shrews and moles. Their spines evolved separately.
• Myth: hedgehogs can shoot their spines. No hedgehog can throw or release spines as a defense; the spines stay firmly attached.
• Fact: hedgehogs are a gardener’s ally. They eat many beetles, caterpillars and slugs, though they are generalists rather than slug specialists.