{"topic_id":"exotic_pet_profile_hedgehog","category":"exotic-pet-profile","context":"---\ntopic_id: exotic_pet_profile_hedgehog\ncategory: exotic-pet-profile\ntitle: \"African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) — species profile (taxonomy, geographic range, habitat, physical description, behavior, wild diet, reproduction, lifespan)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.org, University of Michigan) — species account Atelerix albiventris\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/exotic-profile-2026/hedgehog.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-28\ntokens_estimated: 0\nverified: true\nverification: c1_substring\nsource_document: \"Animal Diversity Web species account (Atelerix albiventris)\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.org, University of Michigan)\"\n  title: \"African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) — species profile (taxonomy, origin, lifespan, husbandry basics)\"\n  url: \"https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Atelerix_albiventris/\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-07-28\"\n  ref: \"ADW species account Atelerix albiventris\"\n  doc_type: \"expert species account (.edu, compiled from primary literature)\"\n  needs_review: false\nauthority_tier: T3\nauthority_tier_basis: \"T3:expert-db\"\nauthority_tier_date: 2026-08-04\n---\n\n# African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) — species profile (taxonomy, geographic range, habitat, physical description, behavior, wild diet, reproduction, lifespan)\nAuthoritative first-hand species account (Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan). All bullet facts are verbatim from the cited source and C1-substring verified.\n\n## Geographic Range\n- The African pygmy hedgehog ranges in southern Africa from Senegal to Sudan and Zambia.\n\n## Physical Description\n- A relaxed Atelerix albiventris>>has a generally oval shape.\n- The limbs are short and the animal's round body is low to the ground.\n- The African Pygmy Hedgehog has a very short tail.\n- When threatened, the animal has the ability to contract a series of muscles, rolling itself into a compact ball shape, forcing its quills out in all directions.\n\n## Behavior\n- The African pygmy hedgehog is a solitary animal.\n- As a nocturnal creature, it constantly moves, covering up to several miles in one night.\n- Although they are not territorial, individuals do keep distance from other African pygmy hedgehogs.\n- For instance, males typically keep at least 60 feet between one another.\n- There are a number of unique behaviors present in this species.\n\n## Food Habits (Wild Diet)\n- Atelerix albiventris is omnivorous butprimarily insectivorous.\n- It feeds primarily on invertebrates such as spiders and insects, occasionally also consuming smalll amounts of plant matter or small vertebrates.\n- African pygmy hedgehogs are opportunistic feeders with an extremely high tolerance to toxins.\n- They have been known to eat scorpions and small poisonous snakes with no ill effects.\n- (Kelsey-Wood 1995, MacNamara 1998)\n\n## Reproduction\n- Atelerix albiventris generally breeds once or twice a year.\n- As spontaneous ovulators and primarily solitary animals, this species mates when the conditions are right and they encounter the opposite sex.\n- They typically mate in rainy, warm seasons, when food is plentiful, usually between October and March in southern Africa.\n- Gestation lasts 35 days.\n\n## Conservation Status\n- In addition to the wild animals found in African deserts, a closed breeding stock exists in the United States to service the pet trade market.\n- It is no longer legal to transport the animals out of Africa, so their populations there are not threatened by the pet trade.\n- ( http://www.lpzoo.com/animals/mammals/facts/hedgehog.html ) IUCN Red List Least Concern More information Other Comments African pygmy hedgehogs live approximately 2-3 years in the wild.\n## Lifespan\n- Average lifespan Status: captivity 11.4 years\n","sources":["exotic-pet-profile — African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) — species profile (taxonomy, origin, lifespan, husbandry basics) (retrieved 2026-07-28)"],"source":{"authority":"exotic-pet-profile","title":"African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) — species profile (taxonomy, origin, lifespan, husbandry basics)","url":"https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Atelerix_albiventris/","retrieved":"2026-07-28","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"Animal Diversity Web species account (Atelerix albiventris)","verification_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-profile-2026/hedgehog.txt"},"source_document":"Animal Diversity Web species account (Atelerix albiventris)","source_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-profile-2026/hedgehog.txt","trust":{"authority_tier":"T3","fidelity":"verbatim","license":null,"display_grade":"B"},"tokens_estimated":668,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}