Southern white-breasted hedgehog
Erinaceus concolor
A small spiny mammal with a short tail and a white patch on the chest. It is native and resident in Georgia. The accepted name is Erinaceus concolor, not E. europaeus.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Invertebrates
Status in Georgia
Resident
Size
20–26 cm
Habitat
Garden / edge / woodland
Family
Erinaceidae
Conservation
LC
Human interaction: It has no venom and is not poisonous to touch. The spines are a physical defence, not a venomous weapon. It can bite if handled or if a dog or cat corners it. Any wild mammal can theoretically carry rabies; Georgian literature names fox, jackal, wolf, and dogs as the main sources, not this species. Do not feed or pick it up. It often appears in gardens and eats invertebrates; that is useful in a garden if strong pesticides are not used. Pet “hedgehogs” are usually an African species (Atelerix), not this taxon.
Overview
What is Southern white-breasted hedgehog
The hedgehog in Georgia is the southern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), a mammal in the hedgehog family (Erinaceidae). In Georgian it is often called ევროპული ზღარბი; that name historically belonged to the western European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus, which IUCN and ASM do not list for Georgia. Kandaurov, Bukhnikashvili, Sheklashvili and Natradze 2023 name only one Erinaceus among Georgia’s insectivores: E. concolor. At species level head–body length is about 20–26 cm, the tail 2–3 cm, and mass often about 550–800 g; some individuals are heavier. It has no venom. The main human risk is spines and a bite if handled, not poison. IUCN lists it as Least Concern. It is not treated on this page as a threatened taxon on Georgia’s 2014 Red List.
Last updated
Gallery
Southern white-breasted hedgehog in photos
Photo: David Osipov
Orkhevi, Tbilisi ·
Photo: Nevit Dilmen
Istanbul ·
Photo: Jan Ebr
Turkey ·
Photo: Jan Ebr
Turkey ·
Photo: Nadav Kavalerchik
Kfar Sirkin ·
Photo: Eran Finkle
Israel ·
Identification
How to identify Southern white-breasted hedgehog
A small spiny mammal with a short tail and a white patch on the chest. Native and resident in Georgia.
- 01
At species level head–body is about 20–26 cm, the tail 2–3 cm, and mass often about 550–800 g. There is no separate measured Georgian series on this page. The snout is pointed, the ears short, the eyes small. The back and flanks are covered with smooth spines; the face, legs, and belly are furred. The tail is short and often hidden among the spines.
- 02
There is a white patch on the chest that contrasts with a darker abdomen. That is the main field mark against the western European hedgehog E. europaeus, which has a brown or more uniform chest, not a clear white patch. The Orkhevi photograph of 5 April 2023 shows a spiny back and night-time activity near housing; the chest patch is not fully readable in that frame, so species identity here also rests on taxonomy and range, not on that single photo alone.
- 03
Kandaurov et al. 2023 name only one hedgehog in Georgia. IUCN also lists the northern white-breasted hedgehog (E. roumanicus) as native in Georgia; that does not match the Georgian insectivore checklist. Both have a white chest and are hard to tell apart in the field. This page follows the 2023 insectivore paper for Georgia (E. concolor) and does not hide the disagreement. Western European E. europaeus does not occur in Georgia. The Indian crested porcupine Hystrix indica appears on some mammal lists; it is much larger, with long quills, and does not roll into a ball like a hedgehog. This atlas has no porcupine or E. europaeus page yet.
- 04
It is not venomous. A small spiny animal with a short tail, active at night in a Georgian garden or at a road edge, is this species if the identification is to Erinaceus. Do not handle it to check the chest.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
In Georgia look for it in gardens, parks, farmland edges, scrub, and deciduous woodland edge where there is ground cover and invertebrates. Species-level habitat is broad: deciduous forest, scrub, grassland, farms, parks, and alpine ground below the tree line; dense conifer forest is often avoided if litter cover is poor. That is a species-level picture, not a measured Georgian elevation belt. This page does not colour administrative regions. A named point is Orkhevi, Tbilisi, 5 April 2023 (photograph by David Osipov on this page). Kandaurov and co-authors 2023 compile 112 Georgian records from 1864–2022 (41 literature, 37 collections, 34 field) without reprinting the gazetteer here; the map is in that paper. Dinesh 2017 names Mtirala National Park as a good place for this hedgehog; that is a trip report, not a peer-reviewed paper. GBIF also aggregates iNaturalist and other citizen-science points, including clusters in Tbilisi, Kakheti, Adjara, Guria and Imereti; those are not treated here as a verified municipality list. Do not assume even density across the country.
Diet
There is no separate Georgian diet study on this page. Across the range the main food is ground invertebrates: beetles, earthworms, slugs, and snails. It occasionally takes frogs, eggs, carrion, or other small vertebrates. It is not a specialist on one prey group. The realistic picture in Georgia is garden and woodland-edge invertebrates, but the local menu has not been measured here.
Behavior
It is mainly active at night. By day it hides in a nest of leaves and grass under a bush, roots, or other cover. Species-level accounts also describe burrow nests; some secondary sources say this species never digs. Those two pictures disagree; this page does not choose one as a national rule. In the colder parts of the range it hibernates in the cold season; start and end dates have not been measured for Georgia on this page. It is usually solitary except when breeding or when a female has young. When threatened it rolls into a ball so that the soft belly and face are covered by spines. It sometimes covers itself with saliva (self-anointing); the function of that behaviour is not fully settled. Breeding is in the warm months; litter size in the literature is from a few young to about seven. Those figures are regional or species-level, not a Georgian den sample. There is no Georgian recording on this page.
Conservation
Amori, Hutterer, Kryštufek, Yiğit, Mitsainas and Palomo assess Erinaceus concolor as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2021 publication; the assessment updates 2016). The global range runs from Anatolia through the southern Caucasus to the Levant. Eliava et al. 2007 list it as LC in Georgia. Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Resolution No. 190) is not treated on this page as listing it as a threatened taxon. Named pressures at species level include road mortality, habitat loss, and pesticides; a national trend is not measured on this page. Do not handle wild animals or keep them as pets.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Southern white-breasted hedgehog.
A hedgehog is, yes. The accepted name is Erinaceus concolor. Western European E. europaeus does not occur in Georgia. The Georgian common name is historical.
In gardens, parks, farmland edges, and woodland edges. A named point is Orkhevi in Tbilisi (photograph, 5 April 2023). A 2023 compilation has 112 records from 1864–2022. This page does not map every region.
A small spiny mammal, short tail, white patch on the chest. The national insectivore list does not include a second hedgehog species in Georgia.
Head–body about 20–26 cm, tail 2–3 cm; mass often about 550–800 g. There is no separate measured Georgian series on this page.
Mainly ground invertebrates. Diet has not been studied separately in Georgia on this page.
Mainly at night. It hibernates in the cold season; Georgian dates are not measured here. It is a resident and does not migrate like many birds.
It is not venomous. Spines and a bite are possible if you pick it up. Do not handle it.
Globally Least Concern. It is not treated on this page as a threatened taxon on Georgia’s 2014 Red List. Do not treat IUCN LC as a licence to take it.
- Amori et al. 2021 — IUCN Red List, Erinaceus concolor
- Gazzard & Rasmussen 2024 — IUCN Red List, Erinaceus europaeus
- Amori et al. 2021 — IUCN Red List, Erinaceus roumanicus
- Kandaurov, Bukhnikashvili, Sheklashvili & Natradze 2023 — Insectivores of Georgia, 1864–2022
- Kandaurov et al. 2023 — The insectivores of Georgia (GBIF dataset)
- Bukhnikashvili & Kandaurov 2002 — The annotated list of mammals of Georgia
- Eliava et al. 2007 — New data on animal biodiversity of Georgia
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- Wilson & Mittermeier 2018 — Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 8
- Kryštufek & Vohralík 2001 — Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus, Insectivora
- Hutterer 2005 — Mammal Species of the World, Erinaceus concolor
- ASM Mammal Diversity Database — Erinaceus concolor
- ASM Mammal Diversity Database — Erinaceus europaeus
- Seddon, Santucci, Reeve & Hewitt 2002 — Caucasus Mountains divide in Erinaceus concolor
- Dinesh 2017 — Mammals of the Republic of Georgia (trip report)
- Wikimedia Commons — Orkhevi, Tbilisi (David Osipov, CC0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Istanbul (Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Turkey (Jan Ebr, CC BY 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Turkey (Jan Ebr, CC BY 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Kfar Sirkin (Nadav Kavalerchik, public domain)
- Wikimedia Commons — Israel (Eran Finkle, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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