Thanks Nic, I confess I felt awful about it – well, I still do – but I think you’re right and the young foxes are probably the answer as to what happened, in conjunction with the pond being down a bit. There are 3 fox cubs regularly in the garden, and they have certainly sniffed at the hedgehogs from time to time. The hedgehogs do have a homemade feeding box – fitted with a flowerpot entrance tunnel this year after one of the very young fox cubs could get right inside! I have now moved where I put food down for the foxes to another part of the garden, which is also at a lower level than my very small pond.
Since the dead hedgehog incident, there seem to regularly be 2 hedgehogs coming into the garden – at most I’ve had 4 at the same time. I think the one that died was the smallest of my regular visitors, who I saw for the first time a year ago, when s/he actually tried to nibble the laces of my trainers as I stood still watching from above! I was worried s/he’d be too small by the time hibernation came round, but I saw what I assume was the same little hedgehog when they emerged in March. I love watching them!
