What could have killed my baby hedgehog?

[Gertie]

I had 4 baby hedgehogs and found one dead on my lawn this morning. It had been mauled to the face and partly on the tummy. I am a town dweller so not at all rural. what possible other creatures would have done this?

[Nic]

Oh Gertie, that is so sad.
There are a few possibilities. It seems there are more foxes and badgers in urban areas than there used to be, so it could possibly one of those. I would have thought they would have eaten it, though, unless it was a young fox/badger. The other thing it could have been is a stray dog – if one could access your garden. A dog managed to get into my garden a couple of years ago (not sure exactly how) and fatally injured an adult hedgehog, so it does happen. I am guessing you don’t have a night cam?

Fingers crossed for the other little ones.

[dydor]

I found three young hedgehogs in our garden today exactly as you describe Gertie, mauled about the face and tummy. Very distressing indeed.

[Roccoryan2008]

Probably a fox 🙁

[Nic]

Hi dydor

So sad that you found that. Finding any dead hog is distressing, but finding young ones, apparently killed for no reason must be even worse. It’s possible that it was young foxes ‘playing’ with them. We sometimes hear, on the forum about young foxes, i.e. biting off back legs of hedgehogs who don’t roll up soon enough, but young hogs could be caught completely unaware. Young foxes sometimes ‘practice’ their hunting skills and appear to be playing with ‘prey’ animals, but don’t necessarily eat them. Do you know if you have any foxes in the area?

I hope the hogs have better luck in the future.

[Author]

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