The Madras Hedgehog
For the longest time, I thought hedgehogs were simply critters from British children’s books. But three different species of hedgehogs — living, breathing mammals — inhabit the Indian subcontinent alone. Of these, we know very little about the Madras Hedgehog (Paraechinus nudiventris), says Dr. Brawin Kumar, ecologist, and conservationist, working to save this endemic species from obscurity, even possible oblivion. The Kanyakumari-born researcher recalls his first sighting of the spiny animal, resembling “a small bunch of twigs arranged with utmost care,” as it ambled about in the scrub looking for food.
Kumar, who earned his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing is now a National Postdoctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati. As part of his efforts to save the Madras Hedgehog, the conservationist has brought out a comic book in the local dialect for children in Tamil Nadu, who live in and around the hedgehog’s habitat.
So, tell us how you got interested in the Madras Hedgehog?
On World Environment Day, one year into my job in conservation biology with the ZOO Outreach Organization in Coimbatore, I went to Tirunelveli for an Earth Day celebration. This was in 2011. We had an interactive session with the audience about the plants and animals in the region. Then, they came up with a question that stumped me. They asked me about the mull-eli (spiny rat), the tiny creature which often ends up as roadkill. One of them had even saved up spines and brought some along.
I had no idea what creature they were talking about. I had graduated with a master’s degree in biotechnology the previous year. I took back a few spines with me to show to experts at ZOO. That was my first introduction to the Madras Hedgehog. It took several visits to the area before I finally saw my first live hedgehog.
Meanwhile, I started reading up everything I could about them. These mammals were recorded in scientific literature in 1851. Even today, very little is known about the behaviour of these, solitary, nocturnal and elusive animals. So, I began gathering data about the distribution of hedgehogs in Tamil Nadu.
We did fieldwork in areas in Tamil Nadu where hedgehogs have been historically documented. I drew up a questionnaire to document people’s perceptions about hedgehogs across their known range. Local newspapers reported sightings — that turned out to be an unexpectedly good resource. We networked with local conservation groups like the Nellai Nature Club. People reported sightings from camera traps. At the end of the five-year-long study, we got a clearer picture of the distribution of these hedgehogs and about the threats to their survival.
In 2018, we published a detailed paper in Mammalia, based on our findings.
So, what were some of findings about the distribution of the hedgehog?
Hedgehogs were not confined only to arid landscapes in Tamilnadu. The habitats include pasture lands, edges of agriculture fields, shrublands, grasslands, urban areas, sand dunes, and foothills of small hillocks. Madras Hedgehogs live in burrows and come out in search of insects. You can see them in cattle-grazing fields, behind houses, and under Palmyra tree leaves. You could see them near lampposts, hoping to feast on insects that fall to the ground.
We pooled together confirmed locations and sighting records and used an algorithm to predict the potential distribution range of hedgehogs in southern India. But ninety per cent of the hedgehog population lives outside protected areas, where, unlike megafauna like elephants and tigers, small mammals have no safeguards under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
The hedgehog’s range is bigger than you thought, but you are still worried about hedgehog’s survival. Why?
Worldwide, wildlife has had to contend with habitat loss, vehicular traffic, and the threats of climate change. Madras Hedgehogs are also a victim of local superstitions. When hedgehogs sense a physical threat, they curl up into a spiny ball. Hunters easily pick them up and sell them in the marketplace — dead or alive — as products and pets.
The dried skin of the hedgehog is considered a status symbol. Dried hedgehog spines are used as medicine for whooping cough and other ailments. Hedgehog meat is a delicacy. Hedgehogs, which end up as pets, die soon because they are fed only greens. Even zoos which get rescues do much the same thing. There is simply not enough scientific awareness about the animal — few seem to realize they are not mini-porcupines. Older people said that they had seen live hedgehogs or its pawprints on the sane growing up, but no longer. The animal was going extinct in so many of its known habitats.
Why did you decide to bring out a Tamil comic book on Madras Hedgehogs?
As an ecologist, it shocked me to see that the children in the hedgehog’s homeland were growing up ignorant of this tiny mammal. Very few children in that state have even seen the hedgehog. I worked with Venkatesh Babu to create a 20-page Tamil comic book Mullikkaattu Ithigaasam (Legend of Scrub Forest). The plot is like this: Two schoolchildren rescue a little hedgehog from a misinformed practitioner of medicine. Most of its siblings have already ended up as roadkill and the mother is delighted to be reunited with her little one.
In the academic year 2018-19, I started distributing the [comic] books in a few schools in southern Tamil Nadu, near the habitats of Madras Hedgehogs. The response was heartening. When schools reopen after the pandemic, I will restart my outreach efforts. The endemic hedgehog should be mentioned in local school textbooks.
What are your other plans for hedgehog outreach?
My goal is to conduct a mass outreach program for the conservation of the Madras Hedgehog and its habitat. Hedgehogs are not vermin, but their local name is mull-eli (literally thorny rats), so people don’t think twice about killing them. This is unfortunate. I would also like to explore linking with community radio stations to try and save the remaining few pockets of hedgehog habitats. Being insectivores, hedgehogs are natural allies of farmers, a fact we need to emphasize during outreach. Researchers and local NGOs have to work together to save these little creatures before they go locally extinct.
The Madras Hedgehog is found in the other southern states as well, not just Tamil Nādu. Besides, there are two other species of hedgehogs in India: the Long-eared Hedgehog and the Indian Hedgehog. The government could nominate a Hedgehog Day. The birthday of M. Krishnan (30 June 1912), pioneering Indian naturalist and nature writer, would be an ideal date. While these mammals are known to resist a range of toxins, M. Krishnan was the first person to document that the Madras Hedgehog can even survive snakebites. It would be great to research the science behind this and other surprising abilities of the hedgehog.
Here is a last question -- of interest to folks from Chennai -- can you see the Madras Hedgehog in the capital city?
In colonial times, vast parts of southern India constituted the Madras Presidency. That is how the Madras Hedgehog, an endemic, got its name. There is a specimen of the mammal at Madras Museum. But the collection date, location are all missing – so it hard to said to say whether even that original specimen was from the city or it was from elsewhere in southern India. There are no hedgehogs in Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur, Chennai.
There are a few potential hedgehog habitats in and around the city, but we have not done field surveys yet. Without that, we cannot say for certain. So yes, without field studies, we cannot conclusively answer even this simple question.