Top 10 Cutest Animals In The World
10. Hedgehogs
Hedgehogs are spiny mammals that can be found in Asia, Africa and Europe. Although they look more like a rat but are undeniably cute and harmless too. Which is the reason they are increasing in popularity as an exotic pet animals. If you are looking for a cute pet which is also unique in itself, go get a hedgehog.
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the Eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas.
Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews, with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and have changed little over the last 15 million years. Like many of the first mammals, they have adapted to a nocturnal way of life. Hedgehogs’ spiny protection resembles that of the unrelated porcupines, which are rodents, and echidnas, a type of monotreme.
The name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge, because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge, from its piglike snout. Other names include urchin, hedgepig and furze-pig. The collective noun for a group of hedgehogs is array.