Biddy was an African pygmy hedgehog from Oregon whose owners, Toni DeWeese and Tom Unterseher, photographed him on day trips around the Pacific Northwest. Held up in the palm of a hand against forests, waterfalls and mountain views, he became one of Instagram's first animal travel stars, with more than 600,000 followers by early 2015.
Biddy the travelling hedgehog from Oregon
The idea began modestly. "We thought we'd get, like, 500 followers with our hedgehog photos," DeWeese told The Oregonian. Instead the account, biddythehedgehog, kept growing: around 376,000 followers when Bored Panda profiled him in 2014, and more than 600,000 a few months later.
The pictures followed a simple formula. Biddy sits in a hand in the foreground, small, round and calm, while the scenery does the rest. The couple took the photographs themselves and admitted the attention changed their weekends: "We did go out a lot before, but now we feel like we have to every week because everyone's expecting an adventure."
From the Pacific Northwest to Mount Rushmore
Most of Biddy's outings were in Oregon and its neighbouring states: mountain forests, waterfalls, the city of Portland and, now and then, a doughnut shop. Longer trips took him to Old Faithful in Yellowstone and to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
One of his Oregon destinations was the Painted Hills in Wheeler County, about 14 km north-west of the small town of Mitchell. Part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the 3,132-acre site is famous for its striped hills of red, yellow, black and grey. The bands formed between 34 and 28 million years ago as the climate swung between warm, wet periods and cooler, drier ones: red from iron-rich soils, yellow from iron and magnesium oxides, black from manganese and lignite, grey from mudstone and shale.
African pygmy hedgehogs as pets
The African pygmy hedgehog, or four-toed hedgehog, is the species most often kept as a pet. Adults are about 21 cm long and weigh roughly 250 to 600 grams. They are solitary and nocturnal, eat mainly insects and other invertebrates in the wild, and are energetic enough that owners usually give them a large running wheel.
They are comfortable at about 24 to 30 °C. Much colder and they may try to hibernate, much warmer and they slip into a summer torpor, so trips outdoors need care with temperature. Pet hedgehogs typically live four to six years. Some US and Canadian localities ban them or require a permit, so check local rules before getting one.
Remembering Biddy
Biddy died on Sunday 1 March 2015. His owners announced the news on 6 March and said cancer was believed to be "the reason for all of his health issues". "He was a big part of our family and he will be greatly missed," they wrote, thanking his followers and adding that they "couldn't have asked for a better hedgehog". BuzzFeed reported his death along with many outlets worldwide.
His photographs remain a cheerful record of a small animal and the people who loved him. For another animal travel story, our feature remembering Poh’s road trip follows a dog's last journey, and Lens Between Us shows another clever way to build a travel photo diary.
Related reading
- Millie and Craig Armstrong: A Cat’s Place in a Climber’s Travels
- Rupee and Joanne Lefson’s Trek to Everest Base Camp
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