News and Society, Nature

The Daurian hedgehog: interesting facts and photos

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

Description

The Daursky hedgehog is a representative of the squad of the Yezhovs and is similar to his relatives in virtually everything.

A distinctive feature is the absence on the head of the bare skin strip, which is found in all hedgehogs, as well as the reduced prickles caused by needles whose growth is directed back.

In all other respects, the Daurian hedgehog (photo in the article) is a familiar animal with a cone-shaped head of straw-whitish color and a moderately elongated muzzle. The size of his torso 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. Color of fur varies from light sand color to dark brown, needles are provided with one or two longitudinal strips. The presence of annular muscles under the armor allows the animal to easily fold into a tight tangle.

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

Food

In nutrition, the acicular mammal is unintelligible and takes with pleasure any feed without disdaining even carrion. Favorite beers 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 hedgehog ration is enriched with the fruits of Dahurian ephedra, dog rose and cotoneaster during their ripening season.

Habitat

The habitats of the Daurian hedgehog are the territory of Russia, namely the Chita and Amur regions, Primorsky Krai, Central and Southern Transbaikalia, part of the territory of which was earlier called the Daurian land. This gave the name to the animals living on its squares: Daurian marmot, Daurian crane, Daurian hedgehog (photo is given). Also prickly handsome can be found in Eastern Mongolia, Manchuria and Northeast China. True, the meetings are not as frequent as we would like, since in the 60s of the last century the habitats of the Daurian hedgehog were processed by the strongest pesticides, which caused the death of a huge number of representatives of this class of animals. Hedgehog in this case was an accidental victim, as the action of poisonous substances was directed against the vectors of the plague - the field rodents.

In the natural environment, the habitat of the Daurian hedgehog is the steppe regions, as well as semi-desert and mountainous terrain with stony placers. He lives in the abandoned burrows of rodents, does not bypass the thick bushes, natural niches in the soil and under the rocks. Avoid areas with densely growing grass. Often dwellings prickly handsome located near human habitation. This is explained by the lack of predators, the presence of secluded shelters and a sufficient amount of food.

Risk factors for the Dahurian hedgehog

By the way, dangers lie in wait for the Daurian hedgehog at every turn. On the part of animals it is a fox, a wolf, a steppe ferret, dogs that are kept without a leash. It is hard to save a hedgehog from a badger, able to get it from deep holes.

Of the winged representatives, the hedgehog is afraid of the steppe eagle, mohnonogo kurgans, owls.

Forest and steppe fires, applied pesticides, harvesting agricultural measures significantly influence the population decline.

A lesser degree of danger is for the hedgehogs roads that carry death from the wheels of vehicles, as well as capture and keeping them in captivity, under which conditions they can live up to 8 years. In the natural environment, the life expectancy is an order of magnitude smaller and is 3 to 4 years.

The above factors have become the basis for a person to control how and where the Daurian hedgehog lives. The Red Book perpetuated the need for careful treatment of such a vanishing representative of the animal world.

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

In hibernation, the Daurian hedgehog runs into August-October and exits this state around the end of April. The first in August lie in a state of sleep adult males; Young individuals - around October. The awakening for the Daurian urchins is simultaneous and occurs around the second half of April.

Reproduction

In nature, the Daurian hedgehogs live separately, but during the mating period, which occurs at the end of May, the couple live together for several days.

Place for the appearance of the offspring the female usually lives in abandoned burrows of rodents or digs a shelter independently. The period of gestation of hedgehogs is 37-40 days, usually in June-July a new offspring appears in the number of 4-7 young. They are born blind, eyes begin to open on the 16th day. Also at babies at a birth bright pink color of a skin and at all there are no needles. Rusty they begin after a few hours after the birth. The female is characterized by a particularly tremulous care for its offspring and, at the slightest risk, transfers its babies to a new lair.

Hedgehogs grow quite quickly and come out of the hole begin at a month old. Finally separated from the mother in 7 - 8 weeks, starting an independent life. Young males reach sexual maturity at 11 months, but competition with older individuals does not allow them to participate in reproduction for about 2 years.

The image of the Daurian hedgehog on the commemorative silver coin from the "Red Book" series, denominated in 1 ruble, issued in Russia in 1999 in a limited edition, was immortalized.