Northern white-breasted hedgehog in Polissia
Erinaceus roumanicus
Caution: may carry ticks and fleas; better not to pick it up with bare hands
The northern white-breasted hedgehog is a small animal whose back and sides are covered in spines, and its face and belly in fur. It differs from its western relative by a pale, almost white patch on its chest. It meets danger by rolling up into a prickly ball.
In Polissia the hedgehog lives on forest edges, in shrubland, gardens, village plots and parks. It avoids deep forests and bogs.
The hedgehog is active at night, hunting beetles, worms, slugs and birds' eggs. It snorts and stamps loudly, so on a quiet night you often hear it before you see it. From mid-autumn to spring it sleeps in a nest of leaves.
Do not feed hedgehogs milk: it harms them. Leave piles of leaves and branches in the garden where a hedgehog can spend the winter, and be careful when burning dry leaves, as an animal may be inside.
When to see: April–October, at dusk and at night
Where it was seen in Polissia
Observations from the open scientific database GBIF since 1990.
More in “Mammals”
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Europe's largest deer, a common resident of Polissia's bogs, alder woods and young pine forests.
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Polissia's only large wild cat: a secretive predator of remote forests, found far more often by its tracks than seen.
Grey wolf
The top predator of Polissia's forests and bogs, keeping numbers of wild boar, roe deer and red deer in check.