Hi,
I have at least 3 hedgehogs visiting our garden that I feed. They have been coming every night since they came out of hibernation. In the last few weeks we’ve also seen a fox and a badger visiting the garden and these too are now nightly visitors.
I’ve started putting out food for the fox and badger away from the feeding stations for the hedgehogs and they now don’t go near them at all. I do have several pieces of video footage from my trail camera of both badger and fox with the hedgehogs and nothing untoward is happening. I only have one video of a hedgehog showing displeasure at a badger being close by. The hedgehog was in front of a humane rat trap that we had left out with bait in it and the badger was intent on getting to the trap to eat the bait. He completely ignored the hog but was doing his best to get the trap. As he was too close the hog was definitely letting him know that he was encroaching upon his personal space!!
Badgers don’t actively hunt hedgehogs – their main diet is earthworms – and it’s my understanding that they will only attack and eat hedgehogs if food is in short supply.
It could be that your hedgehogs are starting to move further afield or maybe some are already in nests waiting to give birth?
Hope this helps? I can try and post the videos later.
Lisa
