Scientists have discovered five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs from South East Asia.

The revelation required several scientific missions to the animals’ tropical forest home to study them.

Researchers also re-evaluated specimens of the mammals which had been in museum collections for decades.

This detailed, biological spot-the-difference study revealed that two of the animals in the museums were new species to science.

Three others - that had been categorised as subtypes of one species - were confirmed to be sufficiently distinct from each other to be formally recognised as individual species.