While the African Pygmy is known as the most common domesticated species of hedgehog, some would argue that this type of hedgehog is neither a species nor domesticated. Because the importation of hedgehogs to the United States is now illegal, breeders have made this type by cross breeding the Algerian Hedgehog and the Four Toed (White-Bellied) Hedgehog. Also, hedgehogs themselves only began to be domesticated during the 1980's, which does not give them much time to develop the traits necessary.
Over 60,000 wild African hedgehogs were imported into the United States and Canada before the USDA implemented strict quarantines on imported animals. Children in Africa were paid around 50 cents per hedgehog and would collect them from the garbage dumps in which they lived. There, they were as common as a rat in a landfill, but here they first sold for hundreds of dollars. Not only were they used for companion animals at first, but also for blood clot research.
Hedgehogs have become more domesticated since the 1980's, but the fact that some breeders select for color instead of tameness has slowed the process down considerably. They have a better temperament than their wild counterparts, but no signs of neoteny have developed, indicating that hedgehogs still have a long way to go until they are truly considered domesticated.
Because hedgehogs are not completely domesticated and are therefore not in many households, their interactions with the average human are minimal. Yes, in some countries they are hunted and eaten, but even there most people do not rely on hedgehogs as a food source. Sonic the Hedgehog and other popular characters in pop culture are more well known than the animals themselves (more on this further down). While those who own hedgehogs enjoy their company, when a person who has never seen one up close before approaches them, it is with both interest and fear. After all, rubbing a hedgehog the wrong way is more painful for the person than for the animal.
In the wild, hedgehogs are not very social creatures (another trait which does not help speedy domestication.) They come together only to breed, and the mother raises her young alone. In captivity many hedgehogs have bonded with their owners, but keeping more than one hedgehog together can be dangerous. The emotion that is easiest to detect in hedgehogs is that a fear. When they are scared they make themselves into a ball of quills and making angry huffing noises.
In the wild, most predators had no way around this and would give up on trying to eat hedgehogs. Now this defense discourages human-animal interaction and makes bonding more difficult. For the first month that I had my hedgehog he would go into defense mode anytime I entered the room. If a hedgehog is not very afraid, but simply nervous they will put up their spikes while moving around, and if they are only a bit uncertain they will have their head spikes up only.
Because these animals are not widely studied, not much is known about their emotions. One example of this is the phenomenon called “self-anointing” or simply “anointing”. Sometimes when a hedgehog smells something new or particularly smelly, they will produce foamy saliva and cover as many of their spikes as possible with it. While theories include trying to remember a certain smell or the foam being a toxin to their predators, no conclusive evidence has been found.
Studying hedgehog intelligence is challenging for these reasons as well. While their sense of sight is not the best, their sense of smell and hearing makes up for it. Besides this, they have an excellent sense of motion, even if their eyes are closed, which assists them in hunting insects and knowing when it is safe to come out of their defensive ball. Another sense they have is emotion detection. When being handled they pick up on the emotions of the person and act accordingly.
While here in the Unites States many consider hedgehog to be novel pets, there are many states that restrict ownership. In Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and California it is illegal to own hedgehogs at all. Arizona and Maine require permits while in a few other states miscellaneous rules apply. For example, hedgehogs are only legal in certain counties or can be breed but must be shipped out of state in Georgia, Nebraska, and New York. This number has decreased; over a quarter of the United States has at one time had strict rules on hedgehog ownership. These states fear that escaped pets will thrive in the wild, spreading disease and competing with the local wildlife.
Or perhaps they are concerned about this possibility:
As I mentioned earlier, the importing of hedgehogs into the United States was made illegal in 1991 when it was found that they can carry foot-and-mouth disease. While not harmful to humans, this can destroy livestock populations. The last case of foot-and-mouth disease in the United States was in 1929, but many other countries have been affected greatly by this disease.
In other countries, where hedgehogs roam in the wild, they are viewed very differently. The European hedgehog is considered by most a welcome garden guest who will eat harmful insects. Unfortunately, these animals are becoming endangered in many areas. One reason is because people often try to give them milk, even though they are lactose intolerant. Another very common cause of hedgehog death in many countries is being hit by cars. Their natural defense mechanism works against them, and people have taken to building hedgehog tunnels under some roads to give them a safe way to pass.
Where it is not illegal to catch and kill them, some people do eat hedgehogs. The suggested method of cooking is covering them with clay and baking them in a fire so that the quills will be easily removed. Gypsies have been accused of eating hedgehogs and although it was once an important part of their culture, it is not very common anymore. In China, they are considered sacred, while in Africa keeping them as pets is just as common as cooking them for meat.
People have been fascinated with hedgehogs for centuries. There are museums that have ancient Egyptian sculptures of hedgehogs and a wooden sculpture of a hedgehog from ancient Greece is as well. Since then people have continued using these animals in their art. While drawings and paintings of hedgehogs abound, the internet has taken one picture of a particular hedgehog and made it into a meme about art historians.
One reason why humans are so fascinated by hedgehogs is because of their quills. This unique feature sets them apart, making them an interesting character in many different forms of media. Hans-My-Hedgehog is a folk tale which was recorded by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. In this story, a man is so desperate for a son that he says even a hedgehog will do. When his wife has a child, he is half hedgehog they are very disappointed. His quills prevent him from nursing and eventually he punishes a princess for being dishonest by stabbing her multiple times. In the end he marries another princess and sheds his hedgehog skin, revealing a handsome man underneath. The full story can be found in full here: Hans My Hedghog
Beatrix Potter wrote many stories about animals, and one of her characters was a hedgehog named Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. In this story the hedgehog does all of the laundry for the neighborhood and a little girl comes and helps her.
However, the most famous hedgehog is Sonic the Hedgehog who began as a video game character in 1991. This franchise also includes books and movies about him and his friends, including two other hedgehogs named Shadow and Silver. The popularity of Sonic has increased with the ownership of hedgehogs in the United States.
The video games feature Sonic forming a ball and bouncing around levels very quickly collecting golden rings. Sonic and friends have very fleshed out back stories about from where Sonic originated, his enemy Dr. Robotnik, and his “brother” Shadow who is actually faster than Sonic despite the blue hedgehog being “the fastest thing alive” according to the opening of the television series.
A movie more geared toward adults that had a hedgehog named Sebastian is the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. At one point, a wizard who lives in the forest with many animals is dismayed when he sees that his hedgehog friend is sick. At first he attempts to treat him for poisons while Sebastian's concerned family gathers around him. The wizard realizes that dark magic is harming the hedgehog and treats him accordingly, bring him back to normal. While this scene is touching, it portrays hedgehog as highly social animals, when in reality they are very solitary.
Here in the United States we celebrate Groundhog Day on February 2nd. In ancient Rome, they celebrated Hedgehog Day. If the creature came out and saw its shadow in the moonlight there would be six more weeks of winter. Because there are no wild hedgehogs native to the United States, the animal responsible became the groundhog.
Although many are fascinated with hedgehogs and put them in their stories if they cannot keep a pet themselves, some believe that they should not be kept as pets at all. Because they are not fully domesticated, many classify them as exotic pets. Many kinds of exotics should not be kept as pets by the average person because they are difficult to care for. The HSUS and PETA suggest that it is not in the best interest of neither the human nor the hedgehog because they cannot be taken care of properly and can spread disease. While this is true of any animal being illegally imported into the country, many pet hedgehogs were breed in the United States by responsible breeders. Also, many sources site hedgehogs as animals which are low maintenance. I hesitate to classify any animal as this, because all animals can take a large amount of care if they fall ill, and owners should be prepared for this. Still, hedgehogs do not take much more care than a rabbit or guinea pig, and as long as a new owner does their research, a hedgehog's lifespan should not be lowered by captivity, but rather lengthened.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_hedgehog
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