Northern White-breasted Hedgehog

Northern White-breasted Hedgehog[1]
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Erinaceomorpha
Family:	Erinaceidae
Subfamily:	Erinaceinae
Genus:	Erinaceus
Species:	E. roumanicus
Binomial name
Erinaceus roumanicus[3] Barrett-Hamilton, 1900
Range of the Northern White-breasted Hedgehog (blue)

The Northern White-breasted Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus) is a species of hedgehog.

The range of the species extends in the west as far as Poland, Austria and the former Yugoslavia, and south to Greece and the Adriatic Islands, including populations on Crete, Corfu and Rhodes. It is found eastwards through Russia and Ukraine, as far east as the Ob River in Siberia.^[1] It is widespread throughout this range, and there are no signs of a significant population decline.^[2]

Taxonomically, it was for a time considered to be a subspecies of E. europaeus, and later a subspecies of E. concolor. Since the 1990s, it has been considered a separate species in its own right, following new genetic and morphological studies, with five subspecies - E. roumanicus roumanicus, E. roumanicus bolkayi, E. roumanicus drozdovskii, E. roumanicus nesiotes, and E. roumanicus pallidus.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Wilson, Don E.; Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds (2005). Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=13600021. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Insectivore Specialist Group (1996). Erinaceus roumanicus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 2009-04-07. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
3. ^ Note that this is sometimes given as Erinaceus romanicus