Hedgehog Hybrids
Family Erinaceidae
EUGENE M. MCCARTHY, PHD GENETICS
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Hedgehog
Atelerix albiventris [Four-toed Hedgehog]
× Atelerix algirus [Algerian Hedgehog] CHR. DRS. HPF. Most pet hedgehogs (known as African pygmy hedgehogs) are descendants of this cross. Graesser et al. 2006.
× Atelerix sclateri [Somali Hedgehog] These similar hedgehogs have a parapatric contact zone in Somalia, a situation that suggests ongoing hybridization is occurring, but no hybrids have as yet been explicitly reported.
Atelerix algirus [Algerian Hedgehog] See: Atelerix albiventris.
Atelerix sclateri [Somali Hedgehog] See: Atelerix albiventris.
Erinaceus concolor [Eastern Hedgehog]
× Hemiechinus europaeus [Western Hedgehog] HPF(♂&♀). CAONHR(central Europe). Hybrids of both sexes have been reported. Kratochvíl reported that probable natural hybrids occur in a contact zone extending from the vicinity of Berlin to Linz, Austria. Herter 1936, 1938; Kratochvíl 1966 (p. 298); Poduschka and Poduschka 1983†.
Erinaceus europaeus [Western Hedgehog]
See also: Erinaceus concolor.
× Erinaceus roumanicus (♂) [Northern White-breasted Hedgehog] NHR(Europe). HPF. A hybrid was collected near Moscow. It was initially assigned to E. roumanicus on the basis of its nuclear DNA, but it had the mitochondrial DNA of E. europeus (which indicates E. europeus as the maternal parent in the initial F₁ cross). The hybrid individual was clearly the product of repeated backcrossing to E. roumanicus because its chromosomes were almost fully paired. Two lengthy zones of contact exist between these hedgehogs, one extending eastward from the Baltic Sea, another in central Europe. Bogdanov et al. 2009.
Erinaceus roumanicus [Northern White-breasted Hedgehog] See: Erinaceus europaeus.
Hemiechinus auritus [Long-eared Hedgehog]
× Hemiechinus megalotis [Afghan Hedgehog] ENHR(e Afghanistan). According to Corbet (1978, p. 15) these hedgehogs were treated as separate species until Niethammer (1969b) showed that that they hybridize extensively.
Hemiechinus collaris [Indian Long-eared Hedgehog]
× Hemiechinus megalotis [Afghan Hedgehog] Parapatric contact zone (Pakistan). No hybrids as yet reported. Niethammer 1969b.
Hemiechinus megalotis [Afghan Hedgehog] See: Hemiechinus auritus; H. collaris.
Hemiechinus micropus [Indian Hedgehog]
× Hemiechinus nudiventris [Bare-bellied Hedgehog] ENHI(western central India). Biswas and Ghose (1970) describe a population (intermedius), occurring in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. It is geographically and morphologically intermediate. They treat it as a new species (Paraechinus intermedius).
Hemiechinus nudiventris [Bare-bellied Hedgehog] See: H. micropus.
A dog-cow hybrid?
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).