Hi Sam1404
I have long suspected that the hogs pooing may be some kind of defensive/nervous thing or possibly enabling another to get their scent. Hogs don’t have territories as such. They have ranges and different hedgehogs’ ranges overlap. Therefore, they have no need to mark their territories. Some males, in particular, will defend their personal space, wherever they happen to be at the time, but they don’t defend a territory.
I have twice had hedgehogs that didn’t hibernate, at different times, and so each was the only one around and neither of them pooed around the feeding area during their times of sole occupancy.
It isn’t natural for hedgehogs to gather in numbers as they do at feeding stations, and it is possible that is why they poo there. It’s possible they’re uneasy at having so many other hogs around. But I don’t, of course, have any proof of that, one way or the other. But interesting that you have noticed similar behaviour.
