A large-eared hedgehog of dry deserts and steppes.
It has large ears and back spines banded in dark brown and white. The underside is whitish.
At night, a long-eared hedgehog bites a scorpion. The scene was reported in 2025 from Şırnak Province in southeastern Türkiye, after researchers encountered the animals during a nighttime field trip. They saw the hedgehog bite the front part of Hottentotta saulcyi. The record provides concrete evidence that this insect-eating mammal can prey on scorpions.
Yet it describes only one encounter. It does not show how often hedgehogs eat scorpions, whether the animal swallowed the whole prey, or how it dealt with the stinging tail. Scorpion hunting may be an opportunistic response to a prey item encountered that night rather than a regular part of the diet. Observations from other places and seasons would be needed to judge the scorpion’s importance.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global species-level assessment
Globally, the long-eared hedgehog is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. Its global population trend is recorded as unknown. The last assessment date shown in an IUCN cross-check is 11 September 2016; the 2021 IUCN entry is an amended version of that assessment. Jordan’s 2020 national assessment also lists the species as Least Concern and suspects an increase within Jordan, while stating that the national population size is unknown. That local assessment does not establish a global trend. The Jordan report says no serious threats were documented there at the time, but identifies road mortality, collection and trade, and possible loss of prey due to pesticides as potential future concerns. It records habitat protection in Dana Biosphere Reserve and Dibeen Forest Reserve, and lists Shubak as a proposed protected area. The report also records the species in Appendix III of Jordan’s wildlife-protection provisions under the agricultural law. These national measures and observations apply to Jordan and should not be generalized across the species’ range.