Hi JuDu
Sorry to hear about the badger. Sadly they will eat hedgehogs and often if badgers live in an area, hedgehogs will not be there. But don’t blame the badger, it is only trying to survive like everything else. It is humans that have decreased the habitats of both hedgehogs and badgers, so that the two species are more likely to come into conflict.
The only hope is that it is a displaced badger looking for a new home and will move on. Although it sounds from what you say that it has been around for a while. But once a badger has found out how easy it is to kill a hedgehog there’s nothing to stop it doing it again. So it could be argued that by continuing to encourage hedgehogs to somewhere where there are badgers present it could be encouraging them into a dangerous, life threatening situation.
It’s a really difficult problem that I don’t envy anyone. Doubly difficult to know what to do for the best with some hogs already beginning to hibernate and others needing to feed up in prepaparation.
But when I had a badger here once, I stopped feeding the hogs until I was sure it was no longer around and that would still be my instinct. Luckily that one never came back and must have just been passing through. The problem is, if others are feeding hedgehogs nearby, the badger may have found a regular source of food (the hedgehog food apart from anything else) and remain.
I’m guessing you have read what’s been said previously about badger problems.
Sorry there aren’t any easy answers. Just hope the badger moves on. But if you do stop feeding. Please leave water available all day every day. Several sources dotted around might be best in the circumstances – near to cover. Wide but shallow plant saucers are ideal for that.
Good luck – fingers crossed the badger moves away from the area.
