Shock in the night with Hedgehog and Badger (hedgie okay)
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Hi All,
It’s so reassuring and comforting to see there are other people out there that care as much for our wildlife as I do. I just wish there was more of us!
Nic, I have managed to get some sleep since my last message but this is mainly due to the fact that there has been no further screaming which is great. The downside is there has been little or no hedgehog activity in the garden for some time. This is worrying but I am remaining optimistic that they are all ok. I am going to put the camera up this weekend to check what is going on and evaluate the situation. I do still however still sleep with one eye open and my ears listening! 😉
I certainly will get the neighbours on board with Project Hedgehog and see if that helps. TBF the hedgehogs seem to have no issues with access etc. around here but I will continue to monitor the situation. In regards to the badgers not quite sure how many we have but they had built a latrine in the garden which was worrying. I removed this straight away and then did another recce of the garden to look to see how they were accessing it. It was Nicky my wife who found the offending hole in the fence (Was covered by foliage) and this has now been covered. There has been no sign of the badgers since in the garden but I know hedgehogs actively avoid areas frequented by badgers so that may explain their absence.
I think us guys should team up and continue to document what we see and hear in regards to badger activity and their effect on hedgehogs. I will reiterate that I love badgers and have no issue with them. I do however want to help our spikey friends so let’s see if we can ascertain an impact if any on hedgehogs by badgers.
All the best,
Paddy
Hi Paddy
Glad you are getting some sleep and that the badgers haven’t been so much in evidence. I agree the latrine in your garden sounded worrying. Let’s hope they don’t find another way in.
The trouble with this time of year regarding the hogs is that they are beginning to drift away to hibernation now, although I suspect some of the females may still be on hoglet duties and there are sometimes a few hoglets around a bit later. I haven’t seen any of the ‘regular’ mature males here for a while now. So it may have been, even without the badgers, that you didn’t see hogs.
Hopefully, if you are able to keep the badgers out of the garden there will be some hogs back next year. Although, I fear that badgers may become more common in urban areas.
I have had a badger visiting my hedgehog feeders . Last night he arrived at the same time as one of my smaller hogs. He just pulled him aside and proceeded to try and get in the feeder which is alarmed. The high pitched screech of the alarm did the trick, though he did have one more try with the same result.
The hedgehog was obviously pretty frightened, probably more by the alarm than the badger, though he wasn’t fully curled up. After a few minutes he started to creep away, and then, much to my surprise stopped to anoint himself. This surprised me as I would have expected him to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible . Do you think that the anointing was a reaction to the badger scare? And this is the fifth visit of the badger without , as far as I can tell ,any predation of my hedgehog group. They have ample cover close by, but this time one was in touching distance, and was unharmed, in fact ignored to my intense relief. After reading the dreadful experiences of others in this group I feared the worst . What do you think going on Nic , is there any explanation for this behaviour.
Many thanks,
Ray GodwinHi RayGod
Goodness you’ve trawled up an old topic!
That’s bad news that the badger is still around. I think I would stop feeding the hedgehogs. You just can’t trust a badger just because it didn’t kill the hedgehog one time, that it won’t another time. Especially if it can’t access the food, so may be very hungry. What we feed the hogs is only supposed to be supplementary. The hog should be able to find food for itself, but is at risk from the badger. But if you do stop feeding, I would leave water in various places. It’s often harder for hogs to find water than to find food.
I have mentioned before the badger which apparently became used to feeding beside a hedgehog but one night suddenly turned on it and killed it, despite other food being still avaialable. It’s actually quite worrying that the hedgehog with you didn’t seem scared of the badger. It would have a bit more chance if it rolled up completely.
Re. the self annointing. It’s one of those things that isn’t completely understood. Sometimes they do it in response to an unusual smell. So it may be that it had the smell of badger on it, if the badger pulled it out of the way. But also possible that the fear aspect could have contributed. The only time I’ve seen self annointing was when I released a hog who had been in hog hospital and she self annointed before leaving the release box. It could be argued that it had something to do with the smell of captivity, but also potentially she may have had some trepidation about venturing back into the world. Hard to say for sure. Maybe one of those secrets which hogs will keep to themselves!
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