Are There Hedgehogs in America? Where Hedgehogs Really Live

Where do hedgehogs live naturally?

Hedgehogs belong to the subfamily Erinaceinae, a group of spiny insect-eating mammals related to shrews and moles. Depending on the classification, there are about 17 or 18 species in five genera, spread across the Old World.

The best-known species in the Western world is the European hedgehog, which lives from Ireland and Spain to Scandinavia and northwest Russia.

Were there ever hedgehogs in America?

Yes, in the distant past. The hedgehog family, Erinaceidae, is old, and fossils show that some of its members once lived in North America. One example is Amphechinus, an extinct hedgehog genus known from Europe, Asia and North America. These animals died out on the continent millions of years ago, long before humans arrived, and hedgehogs never returned on their own.

Why hedgehogs vanished from North America is not fully understood. Changes in climate and competition with other small insect-eaters are possible factors.

Hedgehogs in New Zealand

The only large wild hedgehog population outside the Old World is in New Zealand. Settlers shipped European hedgehogs from Britain between the 1860s and the 1890s, partly as a reminder of home and partly in the hope that they would eat garden and farm pests. Few survived the long sea voyage, but the survivors multiplied, and by the 1950s hedgehogs were found over almost the whole country.

New Zealand’s hedgehogs have adapted to a milder climate. In the south they hibernate for only about three months, and many in the warm north do not hibernate at all. Conservationists consider them an invasive pest because they eat native insects, snails, lizards and the eggs of ground-nesting birds.

What about pet hedgehogs in America?

The hedgehogs people see in North America are kept animals, not wildlife. Almost all are the four-toed hedgehog, often sold as the African pygmy hedgehog, which comes from the savannas of central and eastern Africa. Laws vary: some US states and cities restrict or ban keeping hedgehogs, and wildlife agencies discourage releasing any non-native animal, because it would not be part of the local ecosystem.

There is no evidence that escaped or released pet hedgehogs have formed a wild breeding population anywhere in the Americas.

Animals in America that look like hedgehogs

Several North American animals are sometimes mistaken for hedgehogs or share some of their habits:

• North American porcupine: the continent’s best-known spiny mammal. It is a large, tree-climbing rodent that usually weighs about 3.5–18 kg (8–40 lb), many times heavier than any hedgehog, and its quills are barbed and detach easily. Porcupines cannot throw their quills; see can porcupines shoot their quills?
• Virginia opossum: a nocturnal, omnivorous marsupial that, like the hedgehog, often forages in gardens at night, though it has fur rather than spines.
• Shrews and moles: these small insect-eaters are true relatives of hedgehogs, belonging to the same order, Eulipotyphla, and are common across North America.

Around the world, other unrelated spiny mammals have evolved hedgehog-like coats too. The short-beaked echidna of Australia and New Guinea is an egg-laying mammal, and the tenrecs of Madagascar include small spiny species that look remarkably like hedgehogs. These are examples of convergent evolution, in which unrelated animals develop similar features because they face similar challenges.

Where can you see wild hedgehogs?

To see a wild hedgehog, you need to visit their natural range. In Europe, the European hedgehog is often easiest to spot at night in suburbs, parks and villages, especially in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia, from spring to autumn when it is not hibernating. Watch from a distance with a dim light and leave it to forage undisturbed.

In Africa and Asia, the various desert, long-eared and African hedgehogs are harder to see because they are nocturnal and often live in remote dry country. They spend the hot days in burrows or under rocks and come out after dark to hunt insects, scorpions and other small prey.

So while Americans may know hedgehogs from storybooks, video games and pet shops, the only way to meet one living truly wild is to travel to Europe, Africa, Asia or New Zealand. The closest wild relatives you can find at home are the continent’s many shrews and moles, small and secretive insect-eaters that are rarely seen.