Finnish Hedgehog Sighting

I saw a hedgehog today while walking home from my bus stop. It was walking across my path so I got a great look at it. It froze when I came closer but I was able to crouch down an arms length from it's prickly back. It was pretty cool and I decided to check out the hedgehog wikipedia article when I got home...

...because there aren't wild hedgehogs in North America... right? I don't know, it's not something I ever really thought about, although I've never seen one in the wild before :/ It looks like they are only native to Europe, Asia and have been introduced to New Zealand. There are no native species in North America although they make good pets! But make sure it's not against the law: it's illegal to own certain hedgehog species in some areas in Canada and the US!

Out of interest... you can't own a hedgehog as a pet in California, Georgia, Hawaii or New York! In the province of Quebec in Canada you cannot own a European hedgehog but African Pygmy hedgehogs are legal.

I can see it now: an epic adventure movie where a boy meets a European hedgehog and brings him back to Quebec but finds himself desperately fleeing to the Ontario border with his illicit friend.



The hedgehog in this picture looks almost exactly like the little guy I saw. I also found this picture on a flickr album by a Finnish person so I'm assuming it's the same species :) There's only 16 different species of hedgehogs so there's a good chance this is same kind that I spotted!

Anyway, I was quite thrilled with this sighting. This kind of thing just excites me - now I can classify hedgehogs!

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Erinaceomorpha
Family: Erinaceidae
Subfamily: Erinaceinae

Hooray for taxonomy! I'll keep you up to date with every new sighting of exotic Finnish organisms. Now I just need some camo and binoculars...