Evaluating Different Factors That Affect the Nesting Patterns of European and Algerian Hedgehogs in Urban and Suburban Environments.

Small undisturbed patches in urban environments serve as important refuges for wildlife, e.g., hedgehogs. However, the effects of urbanization on certain biological aspects, like nesting behavior, remain unknown. We captured and tracked the movement of 30 male hedgehogs of two co-existing species: Algerian and European hedgehogs. The study was carried out in Valencia (eastern Spain). We distinguished six macrohabitats and five subhabitats. We analyzed the proportions of the macro and subhabitats where nests were found to calculate a resource selection function and fit GLMs. Hedgehog nests tended to concentrate in areas with little human disturbance and were built in hedges or under bush-like vegetation. We did not find any significant differences between species or other considered groups. We noted that nests were distributed around hard-to-find suitable habitat patches. We even recorded a case of two males from both species simultaneously using one nest. Our results suggest that hedgehog conservation in urban environments can be improved by the correct management of forest patches by conserving bush-like vegetation and improving the connectivity between suitable patches with ecological corridors.

Patterns of adult tick parasitization of coexisting European (Erinaceus europaeus) and Algerian (Atelerix algirus) hedgehog populations in eastern Iberia.

The availability of data regarding population abundance and dynamics of ticks in wild vertebrate populations is crucial to understand the host-tick relationship and to assess the risk for domestic animals and humans from possible zoonotic diseases. In this study we analyse several host-intrinsic and environmental factors affecting the tick population of two sympatric hedgehog species (the European and the Algerian hedgehog) in two differently anthropized habitats in eastern Spain. We captured 215 hedgehogs and sampled 356 adult ticks of four different species (Rhipicephalus sanguineus, R. turanicus, R. bursa and R. pusillus). We analysed by General Linear Mixed Models how the hosts' species, sex, capture month and site and their interactions affected tick presence and tick load. Further, we carried out Spearman correlation tests to analyse how environmental temperature and precipitation affect tick presence and load on hedgehogs. We found that, in general, male hedgehogs were more infested than females. However, the effects of the different factors depended on the tick species, especially related to their endophilic or exophilic character. High values of general tick infestation can be explained by the coincidence of tick activity peaks and higher male host activity levels, especially within areas with higher habitat diversity and species richness. We also discuss how the potential immunosuppressive effect of testosterone could be affecting our results. Our results show that in highly anthropized environments hedgehogs potentially act as important mixing vessels for tick-borne zoonotic pathogens and that monitoring ticks in periurban wildlife is important to assess potential health risks for pets and humans.