How Long Do Hedgehogs Live? Wild Hedgehog Lifespan Explained

How long does a wild hedgehog live on average?

For the European hedgehog, the average life expectancy in the wild is commonly given as about two to three years. That average is pulled down by the very high death rate of young animals. A hedgehog that survives its first winter has a much better chance of living several more years.

These figures are typical for a small mammal of its size, and much longer than for a mouse or vole of a similar diet, which usually lives less than two years in the wild.

Why do so many hedgehogs die young?

The first year is the hardest. Hoglets face several dangers in quick succession:

• Early nest losses: a mother may abandon or move her litter if the nest is disturbed, and some hoglets die before they are weaned.
• Learning to forage: young hedgehogs leave the nest at around three to four weeks and must find enough beetles, caterpillars and worms on their own.
• The first winter: young from late litters often cannot gain enough fat before cold weather arrives. Starvation during hibernation is a leading cause of death, especially for these late juveniles.

Because so many hoglets die, a female usually raises only a few young to independence each year, even though a typical litter has four or five. Read more about the winter challenge in when do hedgehogs hibernate?

What kills adult hedgehogs?

Once grown, hedgehogs are protected by their spines from most predators, but they still face many risks.

• Road traffic: in a Danish study of 388 hedgehogs whose age could be measured, more than half had been killed by cars. Most road victims were males, and deaths peaked in July, during the breeding season, when males roam widely in search of mates.
• Predators: the European badger is the main natural predator in much of western Europe, and it can unroll a curled hedgehog. Eurasian eagle-owls, golden eagles, red foxes and dogs also kill some hedgehogs, mostly young or weakened ones.
• Disease and parasites: lungworms, ticks, fleas and infections weaken many hedgehogs, especially in poor years.
• Accidents: garden machinery, netting, uncovered drains and steep-sided ponds injure or trap hedgehogs.

How scientists measure a hedgehog’s age

The age of a living adult hedgehog is hard to judge, because adults of different ages look the same. For dead hedgehogs, scientists use a method similar to counting the rings of a tree. During hibernation, bone growth slows down and leaves a visible line in the jawbone. Counting these lines in a thin slice of bone gives the number of winters a hedgehog has lived through.

This is how researchers in Denmark were able to age 388 out of nearly 700 dead hedgehogs collected by more than 400 volunteers across the country, giving one of the clearest pictures yet of hedgehog lifespans.

What is the oldest hedgehog on record?

The oldest scientifically confirmed European hedgehog is a male from Denmark nicknamed Thorvald, aged 16 years when he died in 2016 after being attacked by a dog. He beat the previous confirmed record by about seven years. The same study found other unusually old hedgehogs aged 10, 11 and 13.

These old animals suggest that hedgehogs which survive their first two years become better at avoiding dangers such as cars and predators. Even so, very few hedgehogs ever reach such ages in the wild, and most of the hedgehogs in any garden or hedgerow are only one to three years old.

The Danish researchers also looked at inbreeding, because Denmark’s hedgehogs have fairly low genetic diversity. Surprisingly, they found no clear link between how inbred a hedgehog was and how long it lived.

How long do other hedgehog species live?

There are about 17 species of hedgehog in Europe, Africa and Asia. Lifespan data are limited for many of them, but the same pattern holds: wild hedgehogs usually live only a few years, while captive animals, protected from predators and food shortages, live considerably longer. Larger species generally live longer than small ones.

The smaller four-toed or African pygmy hedgehog, a savanna species from Africa, is the one most often kept in captivity outside its native range. Like its wild relatives, it lives longer under human care than it would in the wild, where predators and drought cut many lives short.

Is the average lifespan getting shorter?

There is no firm evidence that individual hedgehogs now live shorter lives than in the past. What has changed in parts of Europe is the number of hedgehogs. In Britain, rural populations have fallen sharply since 2000, mainly because of habitat loss, fewer invertebrates and busy roads, which reduce the number of young that survive to breed. See why are hedgehogs declining? for the causes and the numbers.