It is greyish brown in colour, has a piglike snout, and its back and sides are covered with sharp spines. When threatened it rolls itself into a ball bristling with spines.
Hedgehogs feed on insects, slugs, mice, frogs, young birds, and carrion.
Long-eared hedgehogs and desert hedgehogs are placed in different genera. Hedgehogs normally shelter by day and go out at night. They find food more by smell and sound than by sight. The young are born in the late spring or early summer, and are blind, helpless, and covered with soft spines. For about a month they feed on their mother's milk, after which she teaches them to find their own food.