Think all hedgehogs are spiky? Think again. The aptly named furry hedgehog sports a fine pelt of floof with ne’er a prickle in sight.
Furry hedgehogs, also known as gymnures, are found in the subtropical evergreen forests of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Sumatra, China and the Malay Peninsula.
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Their pointy snouts are hedgehog-like and their naked tails are rat-like, but there’s also something of the shrew about them.
They’re not, however, closely related to rats, and instead nestle happily within the family of Erinaceidae, which incorporates both furry and spiky hedgehogs alike.
Where regular hedgehogs have spines made from stiff, hollow, keratin-dense hairs, furry hedgehogs, which are thought to have evolved before their spiky relatives, are covered in dense fur.
Depending on the species, the fur can be soft or bristly, and the size can vary considerably.
In Indonesia, for example, the dwarf gymnure grows to about the same size as a house mouse, while a different variety, known as the white-faced moonrat, grows as big as a domestic cat.
The body plan of furry hedgehogs is thought to resemble that of the earliest mammals, with a long, pointy head, a naked tail for regulating body heat and a plantigrade stance, which sees the base of all four feet firmly in touch with the ground.
Like the regular hedgehogs you might find in your garden, they’re omnivores. Foraging in darkness or the twilight hours, furry hedgehogs use their bristly whiskers to help them find worms, insects, scorpions, spiders, frogs, fish, fruit and other delicacies.
The solitary beasts also have a strong scent, likened to rancid garlic, which they produce from scent glands and use to mark their territory.
Until recently, there were thought to be two known species of soft-furred hedgehogs (genus Hylomys), but a 2023 study revealed an additional five. Researchers studied 232 physical specimens and 85 tissue samples, which came from fieldwork and decades-old museum collections.
Genetic analyses revealed two species that were new to science and three that were elevated from subspecies level (the taxonomic rank below species) to species level.
One of the species, dubbed H. macarong, has dark brown fur and is around 15cm (almost 6in) long. It’s found in Dalat, Vietnam, and is named after a Vietnamese word for vampire (Ma cà rong) because males of the species have long, fang-like incisors.
H. vorax, meanwhile, is a little smaller, with dark brown fur, a black tail and a delicate, narrow snout. It’s found only on the slopes of Mount Leuser in Northern Sumatra and is named for its supposedly voracious appetite.
After the respected mammalogist Frederick Ulmer captured some during a 1939 field trip, he wrote, “they were voracious beasts often devouring the whole bait before springing the trap.
"Ham rind, coconut, meat and walnuts were eaten. One partially devoured the chicken head bait of a steel trap before getting caught in a nearby Schuyler trap baited with ham rind.”
Not fussy eaters then!
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