↙️ 😧 🎇 Daurian hedgehog: interesting facts and photos 👨‍🚒 🤰🏼 🗂️

Hedgehog is a unique creature, familiar to many from children's tales, which instilled in him such qualities as experience and wisdom. This is the oldest mammal with a shock of needles on its back, leisurely mincing with small short legs on the ground for more than 15 million years.

Description

The Daurian hedgehog is a representative of the hedgehog squad and is similar to its relatives in almost everything.

A distinctive feature is only the absence on the head of a bare strip of skin that is present in all hedgehogs, as well as a reduced spiky condition due to needles whose growth is directed backward.

In all other respects, the Daurian hedgehog (photo in the article) is a familiar animal for all with a conical head of a straw-whitish color and a moderately elongated muzzle. The size of his body is about 25 cm, the tail is up to 3.7 cm. Small ears (up to 3 cm) are bent forward, but do not touch the eyes. The color of the fur varies from light sand to dark brown, the needles are endowed with one or two longitudinal stripes. The presence of ring muscles under the shell allows the animal to easily fold into a tight ball.

The weight of the hedgehog is 600-1200 grams and depends on the time of year. During hibernation, body weight is minimal, and by the end of autumn, on the contrary, due to preparation for a long winter period, the hedgehog accumulates the necessary grams.

Nutrition

In nutrition, the needle-shaped mammal is indiscriminate and gladly accepts any food without even disdaining carrion. Favorite treats are beetles, most often black beetles and ground beetles, Mongolian toads, as well as eggs and young birds, whose nests are located on the ground. The diet of the hedgehog is enriched with the fruits of ephedra daurskaya, dogrose and cotoneaster in the ripening season.

Habitat

The habitat of the Daurian hedgehog is the territory of Russia, namely the Chita and Amur regions, Primorsky Territory, Central and Southern Transbaikalia, part of the territory of which was previously called Daursky land. This gave the name to the animals living on its squares: the Daurian marmot, the Daurian crane, the Daurian hedgehog (photo shown).

Also prickly handsome can be found in eastern Mongolia, Manchuria and northeast China. True, meetings are not as frequent as we would like, since in the 60s of the last century the habitats of the Daurian hedgehog were treated with the strongest pesticides, which caused the death of a huge number of representatives of this class of animals. In this case, the hedgehog turned out to be an accidental victim, since the action of poisonous substances was directed against the plague carriers - field rodents.

In the natural environment, the habitat of the Daurian hedgehog is the steppe areas, as well as semi-desert and mountainous areas with rocky placers. He settles in the abandoned burrows of rodents, does not pass by dense shrubs, natural niches in the soil and under stones. Avoid areas with dense grass. Often, the homes of the prickly handsome are located nearby human housing. This is explained by the absence of predators, the presence of secluded shelters and a sufficient amount of food.

Dangers for Daurian Hedgehog

By the way, the Daurian hedgehog is in danger at every step. From the side of animals it is a fox, a wolf, a steppe ferret, dogs kept without a leash. It is hard to save a hedgehog from a badger that can get it out of deep holes.

Of the winged representatives, the hedgehog is afraid of the steppe eagle, the bryophyte Buzzard, and the owl.

Forest and steppe fires, pesticides used, and harvesting agricultural measures significantly affect population reduction.

Less dangerous for hedgehogs are roads carrying death from motor vehicle wheels, as well as capturing and keeping them in captivity, under which he can live up to 8 years. In the natural environment, life expectancy is an order of magnitude less and is 3 to 4 years.

The above factors became the basis for a person to control how and where the Daurian hedgehog lives. The Red Book immortalized the need for respect for such an endangered representative of the animal world.

Daurian hedgehog has a twilight lifestyle. He does not like humidity, therefore avoids damp places and sits in shelter if it rains. But in cloudy weather it is active even in the daytime.

The Daurian hedgehog hibernates in August - October and leaves this state around the end of April.

Adult males are the first to fall into a state of sleep in August; young individuals - around October. Awakening for Daurian hedgehogs is simultaneous and occurs approximately in the second half of April.

Breeding

In nature, Daurian hedgehogs live apart, but during the mating period, which occurs in late May, the couple lives together for several days.

The female usually settles in a place for the appearance of offspring in the abandoned burrows of rodents or digs a shelter on her own. The pregnancy period of hedgehogs is 37-40 days, usually in June - July, new offspring in the amount of 4-7 cubs are born. They are born blind, eyes begin to open on the 16th day. Also, babies have a bright pink skin color at birth and no needles at all. They begin to grow after a few hours after birth. The female is characterized by especially reverent care for her offspring and, at the slightest danger, transfers her babies to a new den.

Hedgehogs grow fast enough and begin to leave the burrow at the age of one month. Finally separated from the mother at 7-8 weeks, starting an independent life. Young males reach puberty at 11 months, but competition with older individuals does not allow them to participate in breeding for about 2 years.

The image of a Daurian hedgehog on a commemorative silver coin from the Red Book series with a face value of 1 ruble, released in Russia in 1999 in a limited edition, is immortalized.