{"id":84210,"date":"2026-01-25T14:08:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=84210"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:55:33","slug":"madras-hedgehog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/madras-hedgehog\/","title":{"rendered":"Madras Hedgehog"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Madras Hedgehog Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the first time, the Tamil Nadu forest department has begun a study on the rare mammal species Madras Hedgehog at the Theri forests in the district.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Madras Hedgehog<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madras Hedgehog, locally known as Mulleli is a <\/span><b>tiny mammal.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also known <\/span><b>as the bare-bellied hedgehog,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discovered in 1851.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>It has sharp spines<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on its back and soft white fur on its belly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its spines offer protection from predators such as foxes, jackals and mongooses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>nocturnal species<\/b> <b>curls into a ball<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to protect itself from danger.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has mastered survival in some of the harshest and driest landscapes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The species prefers <\/span><b>dry scrublands, thorn forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, grasslands and the edges of farmlands.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is <\/span><b>found only in peninsular India,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> primarily across <\/span><b>Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Diet:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It feeds on insects such as beetles, ants, earthworms and termites, apart from plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation Status: IUCN: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Least Concern<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Threats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Its population <\/span><b>declined largely due to hunting<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> driven by mythical beliefs that its quills and meat have medicinal value.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Hedgehog Species in India<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the 17 species of hedgehog around the world, India is home to three:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian Long-eared or collared hedgehog<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian hedgehog<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bare-bellied or Madras hegehog<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/tamil-nadu\/2026\/Jan\/25\/first-forest-department-study-on-madras-hedgehog-in-thoothukudi-begins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madras Hedgehog, also called the bare-bellied hedgehog, is a nocturnal species with protective spines, found in dry scrublands and farmlands. Read more about Madras Hedgehog, Habitat, Distribution, Diet, Threat, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":84406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4952,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-84210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-madras-hedgehog","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}