Hemiechinus collaris
Creators: name: Mittermeier, Russell A.
name: Wilson, Don E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Erinaceomorpha
Erinaceidae
Hemiechinus
Hemiechinus collaris

description: 14. Indian Long-eared Hedgehog <i>Hemiechinus collaris</i> <b>French:</b> Hérisson a collier / <b>German:</b> Indischer Langohrigel / <b>Spanish:</b> Erizo de orejas largas de India <b>Other common names:</b> Collared Hedgehog, Hardwicke's Hedgehog, Long-eared Desert Hedgehog <b>Taxonomy.</b> Erinaceus collaris Gray, 1830, “Doab.” Restricted by R. C. Wroughton in 1910 to “area between the rivers Jumna and Ganges,” India. This species is monotypic. <b>Distribution.</b> NW, EC &amp; SE Pakistan and NW &amp; NC India. <b>Descriptive notes.</b> Head-body 140-180 mm, tail 23 mm, ear 32-38 mm; weight 257-306 g. No specific data are available for hindfoot measurements. The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog exhibits a tendency toward melanism. It does not have central parting of spines on forehead or face mask. Snout is long and pointed. Legs are long, forefeet have curved claws, and hallux on hindfootis well developed. Long ears probably are adaptations for thermoregulation in its desert environment. Ears usually remain folded back over spines on crown, even when an individualis unrolled. Dorsal pelage has spines that are 17-30 mm long in adults. Spines appear blackish brown, usually banded with dark brown and white, pale at bases, and spines are black on their distal one-half including tips; overall effect is blackish brown appearance. Ventral pelage hassoft fur of variable color from whitish to blackish. Some individuals have collar of white hairs from under chin to ears. Stumpytail and abdomen are sparsely covered with blackish brown hair, face usually is paler and has dark brown or grayish black hair, and ears and upper parts of crown have gray or whitish hairs. Dental formula is I 3/2, C1/1,P 3/2, M 3/3 (x2) = 36. Karyotype is 2n = 48. <b>Habitat.</b> Various habitats including lowland areas of the Indus River, semiarid grasslands, plains, scrublands, deserts, dry steppes, and especially numerous in irrigated agricultural lands. The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog tends to avoid hot, dry deserts. <b>Food and Feeding.</b> The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog is omnivorous and will grab and eat any prey that it can overcome. When foraging,it takes short, rapid steps and appears to depend primarily on scent to locate food. It sniffs with its snout in roots of grass or leaflitter in search of insect larvae. Venomous snakes are grabbed anywhere on the body, and with spines erect and head lowered,it keepsits face partially concealed so that the reptile strikes against spines and injures itself. When an Indian Longeared Hedgehog seizes a snake or limb of a large animal, it will roll itself into a ball and begin chewing on the held portion. Diet primarily contains insects, especially dung beetles and orthopterans (mole crickets, crickets, and grasshoppers), but other insects and arthropods; earthworms; small vertebrates including frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, eggs and nestlings of ground-dwelling birds, and small mammals; carrion; and fruit also are eaten. Cannibalism is common. Females will eat their offspring, and males will attack and eat any young they encounter. <b>Breeding.</b> In India, breeding occurs in June-September, which is between extreme heat in May-June and cooler weather in December—January. Young benefit from increased availability of food following monsoons in July-August. Similarly, in Pakistan, mostlitters are born August-September at the height of the monsoon when insect prey is most abundant. The male copulates by standing almost vertically on his hindlegs, while the female lies on her abdomen with hindlegs extended on the ground. Gestation probably lasts 30-40 days. Young are born in burrows. If natal burrow is disturbed, the mother will abandon it. Young are transported by the mother only at night. To carry them, she grasps loose skin on the neck or side with her mouth. Litters average 2-3 young (range is 1-6). A litter of four young was born over a five-hour period. Neonates have closed eyes and seem to locate their mother by smell. Nursing occurs with the mother lying on her side, and infants knead mammae with their forefeet and suck loudly. Neonates average 8:3 g, are 47 mm long, and are nearly hairless, except for scattered spines that are 2 mm long, whitish, and soft. Within c.5 hours of birth spines have grown to ¢.8 mm and begin to darken but are still soft. When c.5 days old, numerous pigmented spines are visible, and by the time young are two weeks old, their back is thickly covered with spines. Young do not leave nest burrows until! four weeks old, after which they accompany their mothers on foraging trips. It is not known at what age young become independent of their mothers but probably at 6-7 weeks. <b>Activity patterns.</b> In summer,the Indian Long-eared Hedgehog escapes intense desert heat by being strictly nocturnal in foraging activity. It emerges at dusk and forages for 5-6 hours. When food is plentiful, it returns to its burrow by about midnight and does not emerge again until the following evening. It is an active digger and excavatesits own burrows. Opening of burrow is entirely or partially concealed under a bush, and if the ground is hard,it can be short, extending no more than 30 cm. In softsandy soil, the burrow can be 150 cm deep. Burrow terminates in slightly wider chamber that is unlined. An individual that descends head first into and out ofits burrow can turn around inside the small chamber. Burrow usually slopes down to ¢.30-35 cm below the surface and will be used by the same individual for an entire year. <b>Movements, Home range and Social organization.</b> The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog is solitary and unsocial, and it never shares a burrow with conspecifics. It is relatively silent, and the only vocalization known is a snake-like hiss that is emitted when disturbed in its burrow or threatened by a predator. This hiss generally is accompanied by sudden upward jerking of the body that can be a painful experience for a predator. The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog exhibits self-anointing behavior that begins by chewing on vegetable matter, generally grass roots, which produces copious frothy saliva. It then contorts itself so that its muzzle is twisted around to its back and flanks, and the liquid vegetable paste or frothy saliva is plastered onto the skin without injury to the tongue. Self-anointing usually is stimulated by some strong smell. Reasons for this behavior are unknown. Anointing might be a way of grooming otherwise inaccessible skin or helping to remove dried skin because the paste eventually dries and flakes off, or it might be a sexual signal because it occurs only in adults during the breeding season. <b>Status and Conservation.</b> Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Indian Long-eared Hedgehog does not come into conflict with humans because it generally lives on edges of cultivation or in deserts. <b>Bibliography.</b> Asawa &amp; Mathur (1981), Beer (2003), Corbet (1988), Goyal &amp; Mathur (1974), Habibi (2004), Herter (1965), Hutterer (2005a), Kanwar et al. (1980), Krishna &amp; Prakash (1955, 1956), Maheshwari (1982, 1984), McCann (1937), Molur et al. (2005), Nowak (1999), Osborn &amp; Helmy (1980), Pandey &amp; Munshi (1987), Prakash (1955a, 1955b, 1959, 1960), Reeve (1994), Roberts (1997), Sharma, G.P. et al. (1975), Sharma, S.K. (1991, 1996), Stone (1995b), Walton &amp; Walton (1973), Wroughton (1910).
description: Published as part of <i>Russell A. Mittermeier &amp; Don E. Wilson, 2018, Erinaceidae, pp. 288-330 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 8 Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions</i> on page 326, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6639332