SMALL MAMMALS IN INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA: HEDGEHOGS, WEASELS, MARTENS

INDIAN HEDGEHOGS

Indian hedgehog

Indian hedgehogs (Paraechinus micropus) are found in portions of far-western India and southeastern Pakistan. They favor hot and arid environments such as deserts. In Pakistan they inhabit tropical thorn forests and irrigated farmlands. They require enough vegetaton cover for their prey and to use as lining for their nests. [Source: Megan Seitz, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Indian hedgehogs are carnivores (mainly eat meat or animal parts) and primarily insectivores (mainly eat insects). They feed primarily on insects, with beetles being their preferred prey, but will also eat worms, slugs, small vertebrates, scorpions, and the eggs of ground-nesting birds. They do not eat any plants even for the water in the desert environment. Vertebrates are eaten entirety, including the bones. These hedgehogs can break open small eggs and sometimes cannibalize young, sick or weak members of their own specie, with this behavior being most common if the prey animal is already dead.

Indian hedgehogs are not endangered. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classifies them as a species of “Least Concern”. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they have no special status. Their numbers are relatively healthy because they lives in relatively uninhabited areas, where humans are not a threat, and they don’t have much to offer humans anyway in terms of meat and skins. Their main natural predators are foxes, Indian grey mongooses, Eurasian eagle owls and and possibly rock-horned owls.

Indian Hedgehog Characteristics

Indian hedgehogs range in weight from 312 to 435 grams (11 to 15.3 ounces). Their head and body length ranges from 1.40 to 2.72 centimeters (5.5 to 10.7 inches), with an additional one to four centimeter (0.4 to 1.4 inch) tail. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Males are larger than females. An adult males weigh around 435 grams, while a lactating female weighs around 312 grams. [Source: Megan Seitz, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

range of the Indian hedgehog

Indian hedgehogs are small and rounded like others of the family Erinaceidae (hedgehogs and moonrats), with a pointed nose and short legs. Megan Seitz wrote in Animal Diversity Web: Indian hedgehogs have dark legs with relatively small feet and claws. The ears are large and slightly pointed, and the eyes are also well-developed. The species is noted for the broad spineless area on the scalp and for their dark muzzle; the dark patch may take various shapes but is distinct from the otherwise pale fur. The forehead fur is white, as is the fur of the underbelly and sides. This coloration is standard for the species, but melanism and albinism do occur. The fur of Indian hedgehogs has been reported as both thin or soft and dense, and the hairy tail is short./=\

Spines cover the dorsal skin and part of the sides, but not the face, tail, or legs. The spines are grooved and lie smooth when a hedgehog is calm, or become extended when a hedgehog is agitated. Spine colors vary from white to yellow with black and dark brown bands, although one color will dominate and most spines commonly have only one dark band. The dental formula for Indian hedgehogs is 3/3, 1/1, 3/2, 3/3. The upper incisors are separated by a gap and are long and slightly projecting, while the cheek teeth have a four-sided occlusal surface and raised cusps. /=\

Indian Hedgehog Behavior

Indian hedgehogs are terricolous (live on the ground), nocturnal (active at night), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), sedentary (remain in the same area) and employ aestivation (prolonged torpor or dormancy such as hibernation (the state that some animals enter during winter in which normal physiological processes are significantly reduced, thus lowering the animal’s energy requirements). They communicate with sound and chemicals usually detected by smelling. They sense using vision, touch, sound and chemicals usually detected with smell. [Source: Megan Seitz, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Hedgehogs are generally solitary animals. According to Animal Diversity Web: Males and females meet only to breed, and the male invests no parental care, possibly owing to the frequency of unsuccessful copulations and pregnancies. With the exception of nursing mothers, only one hedgehog lives in a burrow at a time, although three shared one burrow in captivity. Indian hedgehogs is nocturnal (active at night), and will wander while hunting. They do not hibernate, but may seem to disappear in winter and can become torpid if food or water are scarce. Little is known about an individual’s range, but a good walking speed is 305 mm/s, and a scurrying hedgehog has been clocked at a speed of 635 mm/s. /=\

Indian hedgehogs use their forelimbs to dig a burrow, which it will inhabit for a year. One measured burrow was 457 millimeters long, with a single opening. The hole is located under brush, and they will use burrows made by other hedgehogs if vacant. The nest may be lined with grasses and other plant material, and hedgehogs may also bring food back to the nest, although they do not store food for the winter months. (Nowalk, 1999; Prater, 1965; Reeve, 1994; Stocker, 1987) /=\

Indian hedgehogs also exhibit the self-anointing and defensive posture behaviors seen in other hedgehog species. Self-anointing refers to the hedgehog spreading its own saliva onto its back spines and fur after tasting or smelling something unfamiliar. This action is found in both sexes of all ages, and may occur at any time of year. The reason behind the behavior remains unknown; hypotheses include scent marking, sexual stimuli, and grooming. /=\

Rolling into a ball allows the hedgehog to protect itself from curious predators with its coat of sharp spines. Young hedgehogs can do this within a few weeks, and many muscles are devoted to this behavior. A rolled up hedgehog draws its limbs inward and tucks its head between the forelimbs, creating a ball of spines with no fur or soft tissue on the surface. The muscles used for this are mainly striated, meaning that the action is voluntary; however, a few of the muscles are unstriated, so it is possible that rolling is partially instinctive and involuntary. /=\

Hedgehogs are mostly silent, but they do make a few sounds when in contact with other animals. Courting hedgehog females make loud snorting sounds to males, and poking a nest with a stick will obtain a hissing response from the inhabitant. A disturbed Indian hedgehogs will roll up and grunt or hiss, and in one study a captive mother made a squeaking sound even when alone with her young. /=\

Indian Hedgehog Mating, Reproduction and Offspring

Indian hedgehogs are polygynandrous (promiscuous), with both males and females having multiple partners. Indian hedgehogs breed once per year. The breeding season is spring to summer, or during the monsoon season. The number of offspring ranges from one to five, with the average number being one or two. Males are sexually ready well before the mating season.

Studies of desert hedgehogs, including Indian hedgehogs, often do not specify the species, particularly in work involving both Indian hedgehogs and long-eared hedgehogs, which live in many of the same places as Indiam hedgehogs. Most published research on hedgehog mating behaviors is of European hedgehog mating while such data on Indian hedgehogs is laking. However, most hedgehog species seem to have similar courtship rituals. These involve a series of grunts and seemingly aggressive behaviors as the male herds the female. The male mounts from behind and leaves after copulation. /=\

The precise gestation and lactation periods of Indian hedgehpgs and the timing of breeding and the birth of young range widely. Indian hedgehogs generally breed in the spring or summer between April and September. Populations in Pakistan breed during the monsoon season and the females give birth between July and September, when food is readily available.

Indian hedgehogs are altricial. This means that young are born relatively underdeveloped and are unable to feed or care for themselves or move independently for a period of time after birth. Young hedgehogs are born without spines, but have dorsal tubercles in rows that become short pink-white spines within six hours of birth; these spines achieve a length of 2-2.5 millimeters within 12 hours. Newborns have closed eyes until 21 days after birth, and can roll into a defensive posture in as little as one week. Pre-weaning provisioning is provided by the female. The mother nurses from her four pairs of nipples while lying on her side.

Indian hedgehogs are known for cannibalizing their young. If present, males may eat a baby immediately after birth, and even the mother may eat the babies. A captive female Indian hedgehog ate one of her five babies as soon as it was born and was only prevented from consuming the others by their immediate removal. If not cannibalized, the young have a good survival rate./=\

Black-Striped Weasels

black-striped weasel

Stripe-backed weasels (Mustela strigidorsa) belong to the musteleid (or weasel) family, which also includes otters, badgers, wolverines, and skunks. They are found throughout eastern Asia, with a range that extends from the eastern Himalayas into southern China and the northern Southeast Asia. Weasels, ferrets, minks, sables, martens and polecats are closely related. Stripe-backed weasels are often misidentified but confirmed sightings have occured in northern India, central Myanmar, southern China, northern Thailand and central and northern Laos and Vietnam. The southern limit of the species is not known. [Source: Reynaud Stewart, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Stripe-backed weasels live in temperate and tropical land environments in thick jungle, evergreen forests, dense hill jungle, scrubby regenerating forest, river valleys, mountains and temperate forests at elevations from 90 to 2500 meters (295.28 to 8202.10 feet). Their habitat preferences have been largely inferred from the hunting by indigenous people. Those living at low altitudes appear to prefer rugged terrain.

Stripe-backed weasels are widespread, but do not appear to exist in large numbers. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classifies them as a species of “Least Concern”. They are considered an endangered species in China and have protected status in Thailand. Stripe-backed weasels are trapped and hunted for food and fur by indigenous populations in Asia, although some indigenous people describe their meat as foul-smelling. Their pelts are not very value; only 3,000 to 4,000 documented pelts were harvested per year, in China during the 1970s. There have been reports of stripe-backed weasels killing domestic chickens, but the accuracy of these reports is questionable because they are often confused with mongooses and other small carnivores.

Yellow-Throated Martens

Yellow-throated martens (Martes flavigula) are also known as kharza. They live in forested regions throughout Southern and Eastern Asia. Their range extends throughout the Himalayas, as far west as Pakistan and Afghanistan, into Southeast Asia, as far south as Sumatra, Borneo and Java in Indonesia, and as far north as the Korean Peninsula and the Chinese-Russian border. They occupy a variety of habitats, preferring mixed forests composed of spruce and broad-leaved trees and coniferous taiga forests in the northern part of their range. In southern part of their range, in Northern India, Pakistan, and Nepal, they inhabit lowland swamps and marshes as well as treeless mountains. They live at elevations from sea level to 3000 meters (0.00 to 9842.52 feet). Little is known about the lifespan of yellow-throated martens in the wild. One individual lived 16 years in captivity. [Source: Marcus Shak, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Yellow-throated martens are omnivores (eat a variety of things, including plants and animals). Animal foods include birds, small mammals (squirrels, hares, mouse-like rodents, etc.), amphibians, reptiles, fish, eggs. insects and mollusks. Among the plant foods they eat are seeds, grains, nuts and fruit. Unlike other martens, yellow-throated martens do not eat carrion. Their diet varies depending on location and season. In the northern part of their range, they prey upon musk deer, which they hunt in groups by surrounding the prey and attack it from different directions. They often chase prey onto frozen lakes and rivers where they are easier to kill. Because they rely on musk deer as a prey source, the population of yellow-throated martens tends to rise and fall with musk deer populations. In warmer and lower-elevation areas yellow-throated martens more frequently consume lizards, rodents and fruits. When both are available in abundance they favor fruit over rodents. This preference for fruit has not been observed in any other marten. /=\

Yellow-throated martens are not endangered. They are considered a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to their wide distribution and stable populations throughout Asia. They are protected in Myanmar, Malaysia, and China. One subspecies, yellow-throated martens chrysospila (Formosan yellow-throated marten) is considered endangered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Yellow-throated martens in India are also listed on Appendix III of CITES. Unlike other mustelids, the fur of yellow-throated martens is not valuable enough to justify the trouble of hunting and trapping them. They have no natural predators, and they generally compete with other predators for food. In some regions, yellow-throated martens prey upon sables, a valuable fur-bearing animals but yellow-throated martens population levels are not high enough to have a negative impact on the fur industry. /=\

Nilgiri Martens

Nilgiri marten

Nilgiri martens (Martes gwatkinsii) are the largest Old World martens. They are found only in the western Ghats mountain range of southern India primarily in the moist tropical rainforests and mountains but also have been sighted in coffee and cardamom plantations, swamps, grasslands, deciduous forests, and montane-evergreen forests at elevations from 300 to 1200 meters (984.2 to 3937 feet). Their lifespan is unknown, but a similar species, the yellow-throated martens, lives on average 14 years in captivity.[Source: Amanda Webb, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Martens are omnivorous (eat a variety of things, including plants and animals) but Nilgiri martens are largely carnivores (mainly eat meat or animal parts) and insectivorous (eat mainly insects) and partly frugivorous (fruit eating). They are regarded as good hunters and frequently kill and eat small mammals and birds. There have even been reports of Nilgiri martens hunting much larger than themselves: mouse deer, monitor lizards, crows, Indian giant squirrels. They have also been known to consume nectar and honey and are said to be particularly fond of cicadas.

Nilgiri martens are listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and placed under Appendix III in the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) Appendices because it occurs is less than 20,000 square kilometers, its distribution is severely fragmented and its forest habitat, partly the six discontinuous national parks, is pressured by human settlements. There are reports of hunting of Nilgiri martens but is not so commin simply because there are not that many of them. Its fur is not highly valued either. They may be prey upon by large predators in the Western Ghats, which include leopards, sloth bears, dholes, and tigers.

Nilgiri Marten Characteristics, Behavior and Reproduction

Nilgiri martens have average an weight is 2.1 kilograms (4.6 pounds). Their head and body ranges in length from 55 to 65 centimeters (21.7 to 25.6 inches), with their tail being 40 to 45 centimeters (15.7 to 17.7 inches) long. Marten have a high basal metabolic rate. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Males are larger than females. The coat of Nilgiri martens is brown with a very distinct yellow or orange throat patch. They are similiar in size and appearance to yellow-throated martens. Nilgiri martens are distinguished by their slightly larger size and by the structure of their skulls. Their marten braincases are flattened above with a prominent frontal concavity. [Source: Amanda Webb, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

range of the Nilgiri marten

Nilgiri martens are arboreal (live mainly in trees), diurnal (active mainly during the daytime), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary) and social (associates with others of its species; forms social groups). Little is known about Nilgiri martens home ranges. However, martens often require among the largest home range in areas per unit body weight of any group of mammals. Nilgiri martens have been observed interacting and hunting in groups.

Nilgiri martens sense using vision, touch, sound and chemicals usually detected with smell and communicate with vision, sound and chemicals usually detected by smelling. Given their presumably social tendencies, its likely that communicate both vocally and chemically as other martens do.

The reproductive habits of the Nilgiri martens have not been studied but it presumed that they are similar to those of yellow-throated martens. Many mustelids are polygynous but yellow-throated martens are monogamous breed seasonally between either February and March or between June and August. Other species of Martens undergo delayed implantation (a condition in which a fertilized egg reaches the uterus but delays its implantation in the uterine lining, sometimes for several months). The gestation period of yellow-throated martens is between 220 and 290 days. Generally, mustelids are born small and blind. Yellow-throated martens have two to six kits per litter. Parenting is believed to be taken care of by females.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025