They're Back :)
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My Hogs have made a welcome return this year.
But I have encountered some interesting behaviour. Has anybody seen two hedgehogs headbutting and grunting at each other? I’ve nicknamed it “hog rutting” as the behaviour is very similar to that of rutting stags.we had that last year when the 3 babies from the year before came back,think its just a growing up territory thing.we had lots of fighting going on.not seen any yet this year though 🙁
It is often called the hedgehog rut, so you chose a good nickname! Very often it goes further than head butting and one hedgehog will push the other one along (sometimes rolled up but not always) often for several yards. Often it is to do with keeping competition away from the ‘ladies’.
I always thought this sometimes looked quite aggressive, but this year, I have seen several full blown extremely aggressive fights when one hedgehog will literally be shaking the other like a terrier with a rat. I have noticed a bit of a ‘pecking order’ here in previous years, and wonder whether these fights are to do with one hog trying to move up the ‘pecking order’. They are mostly back to just biffing again now.
Hedgehogs do not have territories, as such, they are more like ranges, and these overlap. They are often thought of as quite grumpy animals, and if they meet another hedgehog they may well give it a biff. Of course, they are more likely to meet at feeding stations, so this behaviour often happens there.
Hi Fifipp
In my experience it’s always the males who do the most aggressive biffing. Although a grumpy female might push another hog out of the way, but it’s very mild compared to the way the males behave. I have occasionally seen a male biffing a female, but I think it was just when he was getting a bit carried away biffing every hog in sight and, perhaps just for a moment, didn’t realise it was a female. Not sure how impressed she would have been with him afterwards!
As said (nearly two years ago! How time flies!) hedgehogs have ranges, rather than territories, as such. But males, in particular, will protect their personal space, which leads to these biffing sessions. In the normal course of events hogs probably wouldn’t meet so often, but are more likely to meet when they visit feeding stations.
These biffing sessions don’t seem to do the hogs any harm, especially if the more submissive one rolls up immediately.
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