Four-toed Hedgehog - Behaviour

Behaviour

The four-toed hedgehog is a solitary, nocturnal animal. It generally moves along the ground, but is capable of both climbing and swimming when the need arises. It is highly energetic, sometimes covering miles of ground in a single night as it forages for insects, grubs, snails, spiders, some plant matter, and even small vertebrates. It has a high tolerance for toxins and has been recorded consuming scorpions and even venomous snakes.

The most common sounds made by four-toed hedgehogs are snorts, hisses, and a quiet twittering sound. When attacked, the animal can scream loudly, and males also produce a birdlike call during courtship.

Although four-toed hedgehogs do aestivate through the summer, this is not thought to be connected to a rise in temperature, but rather to a lack of available food. Aestivation rarely lasts for more than six weeks.

When encountering a predator, its standard defensive reaction is to tense up all the muscles on its back to cause its spines to stand erect, and then roll into a ball protecting its limbs and head. If it is harassed further, it will twitch in an attempt to jab spines into the predator and make snuffling/grunting noises. Its spines are not released into the skin of an attacker, as those of a porcupine. Hedgehogs only rarely lose quills during adulthood; heavy quill loss is usually a warning sign as to the animal's health.

When the four-toed hedgehog is introduced to a new or particularly strong smell, it will sometimes do what is referred to as self-anointing. It creates a large amount of frothy saliva and spreads it onto its spines. It is not really understood why it does this, but it is thought to be a defensive action, as hedgehogs have been known to self-anoint with poisonous toads.

This species tends to prefer temperatures between 24 and 30 °C. When it is hotter than that, it tends to find shelter in a burrow and go into a state of estivation, or when it is colder it goes into a state of hibernation in order to conserve energy.