Behind the Cover: April 2014
A hedgehog portrait is easy, right? In some ways, taking a picture of a tiger would have been simpler.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Published March 17, 2014
A bear, a tiger, or a chimp? Not quite.
Jade
does look like she could be a household pet. A bear, a tiger, a
chimp—all of which wait inside the magazine—are harder to imagine
sharing a human home.
When editors were debating which animal would make the cover for its compelling story on exotic pets called "Wild Obsession,"
they wanted a creature that would immediately make readers smile, and
then awaken their senses of wonder and curiosity: What are exotic pets?
Who owns them? And is bringing a supposedly domesticated wild animal
into a home ever a good idea?
In the end, the
editors went for a hedgehog: adorable but obviously prickly, the perfect
sweet-and-sour note for a story on a sensitive subject. It didn't hurt
that hedgehogs have become trendy pets; one named Darcy has scored more than 400,000 followers on its Instagram page.
The
trade in captive-bred exotic pets has its seamy side. For obvious
reasons, the editorial team wanted to find what Illustrations Editor
Kathy Moran described as "a responsible breeder who runs a sustainable
business."
They found one in Brandon Harley, a college student who owns Carolina Hedgehog in Walterboro, South Carolina. Photographer Vincent J. Musi,
who created images of a cougar, tigers, and a Burmese python, among
other large creatures, for the story, made an appointment to see Brandon
and his collection of African pygmy hedgehogs, a bunch of shy,
tennis-ball-size critters.
Even hedgehogs demand time
and care to come away with a keeper photo. "What you might think will
take 45 minutes is going to take two days," Musi told Harley. "I'm going
to rearrange your furniture and by the end you are going to hate me and
be glad I'm done. But if we're lucky, we'll make a picture that will
make you happy."
In some ways, taking a picture of a
tiger would have been simpler than aiming at a hedgehog. "Usually
getting eye contact takes distraction, like someone behind me waving
meat on a stick in front of a tiger, or for a sheep's attention,
rattling baby toys," Musi notes. "It's the exact opposite with a
hedgehog."
The slightest movement or scrape of lighting
equipment caused his tiny quill-covered subjects to withdraw their heads
and, as Musi puts it, "turn into a pine cone. And it's in there for a
long time."
Harley was a good sport. He brought out most
of his menagerie and cupped them in his hand. (Their quills, not as
sharp as a porcupine's, have been compared to the soft bristles of a
hairbrush.) "We went through nine hedgehogs," says Musi. "If one got
tired or stressed, it would lose the sparkle in its eyes."
The
winning cover girl was Jade, a full-grown, 16 ½-ounce,11-month-old
female used for breeding. Her offspring go for about $200.
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