Microevolution of hedgehogs (B. Bolfíková & P. Hulva)

Family Erinaceidae contains 17 hedgehog species, which can be found in the Old World. In our working group, we are mainly interested in Western Palearctic hedgehogs from the genus Erinaceus (Erinaceus europaeus and E. roumanicus) that are important model organisms for revealing recolonisation routes after the last glaciation. We are taking advantage of Czech Republic location which is in mid-European region, where many lineages from different glacial refugia came into secondary contact. These contact zones are suitable for studying species interactions. Assessing the level of species cohesion in this zone is a key factor to understand speciation process in hedgehogs. We are also studying connections between demographic history, genetic architecture and biology of hedgehogs’ populations which were artificially introduced to islands. For our research we are using many approaches, including molecular genetics, morphometrics, parasitology etc. For more information you can contact us on jezek.dna@seznam.cz .