Amur Hedgehog - Profile | Facts | Traits | Distribution

(Last Updated On: April 15, 2021)

The Amur hedgehog, a scientific name Erinaceus amurensis, additionally known as the Manchurian hedgehog, is a hedgehog just like the European hedgehog in look and behavior, though it’s more frivolously colored.

Amur Hedgehog Profile

An average animal weighs from 600 to 1000 grams. It is native to Amur Krai and Primorye in Russia, Manchuria in China, and the Korean peninsula.

Like most hedgehogs, the Amur hedgehog (Erinaceus amurensis) is a solitary animal. They sometimes come collectively solely throughout mating season.

Amur hedgehogs are coated in long, sharp spines, or quills, manufactured from keratin that serves as a protection mechanism. When threatened, they curl up right into a ball to guard their head and stomach, leaving their quills dealing with outward. Hedgehog quills are a lot stronger than porcupine quills and don’t simply break or fall out.

Though the presence of quills could counsel that Amur hedgehogs are associated with porcupines, they aren’t really intently associated. Their closest family, along with different species of hedgehogs, embody moonrats and gymnures.

It is native to Amur Oblast and Primorye in Russia, Manchuria in China, and the Korean Peninsula. Like different hedgehogs, it makes use of scent and listening to whereas in search of prey, and the name “hedgehog” refers back to the pig-like grunts it makes because it forages.

The Amur hedgehog is present in lowland China, simply south of the Yangtze, alongside the Amur River basin, and into Korea. They should not thought-about to be threatened, as they’re frequent inside their geographic range.

They typically dwell alongside the border between blended coniferous and broadleaf forests and open areas, in valleys and lowlands. They desire tall grasses or bushes and hedges.

Amur Hedgehog Description

These hedgehogs are primarily insectivores, although they are going to typically eat small animals and fruit. Amur hedgehogs are nocturnal and normally feed at night.

They don’t depend on their vision after they hunt. Instead, they hunt utilizing odor. As they root for meals, they make a snuffling sound, just like that made by hogs, which is the place they received their name.

This hedgehog is intently associated with and barely bigger and lighter in shade than the European hedgehog, with a head-and-body size of between 160 and 290 mm (6 and 11 in) and a really brief tail.

It weighs between 600 and 1,000 g (21 and 35 oz). The head, back, and sides are coated with long, sharp spines. These are of two totally different colors; some are plain white; others have a white or yellowish-brown base and tip, and a central portion that’s mid to darkish brown, giving the animal an altogether pale, brownish-grey shade.

The quills on the pinnacle are separated from one another by slender strips of naked pores and skin. The quills, coated in keratin, are robust in order that they do not break or fall out.

These spines are used as a protection mechanism when they’re threatened. The hedgehog curls up right into a ball, the place their quills are dealing without, and their face/head are curled inwards. The face and underparts are coated in pale hair.

Amur Hedgehog Distribution and habitat

The Amur hedgehog is discovered natively within the Amur Oblast and Primorye in Russia, Manchuria in China, and the Korean Peninsula. Its range extends from about 29°N, which is simply south of the Yangtze River northwards to the Amur Basin and the Korean Peninsula.

It occupies a large range of habitats together with grassland, forest edges, and areas with blended coniferous and broadleaf woodland. The IUCN Red List states that it’s present in valleys and lowlands however not in highland areas or cultivated fields.

The Mammals of China disagree, stating that appropriate habitats embody montane and sub-alpine terrain, steppe, shrublands, cultivated land, villages, and city parks.

Reproduction

The Amur hedgehog is an animal that may survive by itself with no partnership. These animals sometimes solely come collectively when it’s mating season. There isn’t any information concerning this particular species reproduction to this date.

Amur Hedgehog Ecology

Like different hedgehogs, this can be a nocturnal species, rising at night to forage for small arthropods, particularly fly larvae, and earthworms, centipedes, snails, mice, frogs, and infrequently fruit.

Amur hedgehog, a scientific name Erinaceus amurensis, additionally known as the Manchurian hedgehog, is a hedgehog just like the European hedgehogChinese sources state that this hedgehog is preyed on by sable (Martes zibellina), however, Russian sources dispute this.

There are one or two litters in the summertime, every consisting of 4 to 6 younger, and in about October, the hedgehog enters a state of torpor and hibernates till spring.

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