Morphometric studies of some visceral organs and gastrointestinal tract of four-toed african hedgehog (atelerix albiventris)

Abstract

Abstract Introductions: Morphometric studies were carried out on some visceral organs and gastrointestinal tract of African four-toed hedgehogs found in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Twelve (12) healthy adult hedgehogs, (6 male and 6 females) were used. The overall mean body weight was 239.5±28.3 g, and was statistically not significant (p > 0.05) between the sexes. The absolute (g) and relative (%) values for nearly all the visceral organs measured were consistently higher in the female, but were statistically not significant (p > 0.05) between the sexes. Results: The gastrointestinal tract morphology was simple, and lacks ceca. The overall mean length of the greater curvature of the stomach was 7.42±0.95 cm, with females (8.17±1.14 cm) having significantly higher values (p < 0.05) than (6.67±0.75 cm) observed in the males. Conclusions: The results obtained in this study will be useful in comparative anatomical studies, and as basic research data in varied ield of zoology and veterinary sciences.