Bioactive Hedgehog Enclosure - Habitat Inspiration

During the summer of 2021, Nathan and I traveled to Kenya and Tanzania with the goal of experiencing the natural habitat that our Atelerix albiventris hedgehogs live in! I hope you enjoy browsing these photos we took to give people a "feel" for the habitat and wildlife community that our hedgies are adapted for. 

PS: We did get to see a wild hedgehog. I cried. It was a huge achievement off my bucket list. It turns out that she was just as friendly as the average pet hedgehog!

A crying girl (me) holding a wild female hedgehog. A man holding a wild hedgehog while sitting on porch

In no particular order - wild spaces, potential prey items, plants, other animals hedgehogs live among, etc. from Kenya and Tanzania:

A ground-level view of scrubland in Kenya

A small nest of termites

Sansevieria plants and stones

Female ostrich on the savannah

A lumpy tan slug

Sansevieria cylindrica "African spear" plants

A small kalanchoe plant in red soil

A warthog on the savannah

A jackal on the savannah

Tradescantia plants growing along river

A black cricket among leaf litter

A wild francolin bird on the savannah

A small brown cricket sitting on a woman's finger

A pale tan grasshopper sitting on the ground

A small cockroach and moth larvae on the soil

Eek! This is her! Isn't she just gorgeous?

A wild four-toed hedgehog (African pygmy hedgehog) foraging at night

A wild four-toed hedgehog (African pygmy hedgehog) foraging at night
A cricket out at night
Small black beetles in the soil
A hedgehog's eye view of the ground at night
A dove on red soil among dried grass
A huge baobab tree on the savannah
A ground-level view of the savannah
A ground-level view of the savannah
A view of trees across the savannah
A lilac breasted roller bird on a tree stump
A dik dik on the savannah
Wild eland among grass and trees
A giraffe on the savannah
An olive baboon looks into the camera while being groomed by another.
Thorny plants
A matriarch elephant on the savannah
A mousebird sitting in a tree
A look across grassy hills in northern Tanzania
Sansevieria plants along the road
A giraffe drinking from a pond
A male-female pair of bush hyrax outside their burrow
A wild cockroach spotted under a rock in Nairobi National Park
Many grasshopper nymphs on one leaf
Various plants growing in a forested area
Wildebeest, zebra and gazelle browsing a manicured field in northern Tanzania
I hope you found it interesting to imagine hedgehogs living in these places! I know it greatly improved and reinforced my understanding of their behavior to watch one in the wild, and to consider their place within the broader context of the ecosystem.
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