Hedgehog
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Isa. 14:23; 34:11; Zeph. 2:14) (from the Arabic: something prickly, that rolls itself into a ball) — a well-known spine-covered, insectivorous animal. In case of danger, the hedgehog rolls itself into a ball and displays its spines on every side, thereby defending itself and even wounding its enemy. It is said that no poison has any effect on hedgehogs. In summer they come out of their burrows at night in search of food, while in winter they generally fall into a lethargic sleep; they are found in damp, desolate, uninhabited places, together with pelicans and other creatures of the wilderness, and are therefore mentioned in the passages cited above alongside other animals of the same kind, as evidence of the desolation and ruin of once-noisy and populous cities and settlements.
“Both the pelican and the hedgehog shall lodge in the capitals of her [Nineveh’s] pillars,” says the prophet Zephaniah, “and their voice shall sing in the windows” (2:14).