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 hedgehog's eye view of the ground at night

A lilac breasted roller bird on a tree stump

An olive baboon looks into the camera while being groomed by another.

A look across grassy hills in northern Tanzania

A male-female pair of bush hyrax outside their burrow

A wild cockroach spotted under a rock in Nairobi National Park

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.