Soft-furred hedgehog specimens deposited decades ago in the museum’s collection are new to science

February 2nd is usually a celebration of groundhogs and their supposed weather forecasting abilities. But this day is also special for another small mammal: the hedgehog. These little critters are found in the wild across Europe, Asia and Africa and come in both prickly and furry varieties. And on this year’s Hedgehog Day, there are even more hedgehogs to celebrate.

Researchers at the National Museum of Natural History recently identified five new species of gymnures, also known as soft-furred hedgehogs, from Southeast Asia. Three of these new species, which resemble shrews more than your typical hedgehog, were elevated from their previous subspecies level. But the other two species, Hylomys vorax and Hylomys macarong, are entirely new to science despite spending decades in museum collections.

“We were expecting that some of the subspecies would be given species level recognition,” said Arlo Hinckley, the lead author of a Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society paper describing the new hedgehog species and a postdoctoral researcher in the museum’s department of vertebrate zoology. “But the surprise was finding these two entirely new species that we didn’t expect.”