Behind the Cover: April 2014
A hedgehog portrait is easy, right? In some ways, taking a picture of a tiger would have been simpler.
A bear, a tiger, or a chimp? Not quite.
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
