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Hi Kitty878
Sorry it’s taken so long to give you a reply – I was finding out what others thought, also. But the general consensus seems to be that a male hedgehog wouldn’t prey on hoglets. They are more likely to be be killed by dogs, foxes, etc. (That is, if it was actually killed and didn’t die from some other cause). But once dead they become carrion, so that it’s possible an adult could then see them as food.
Hedgehogs are very promiscuous so that a female could mate with more than one male in a night and litters could even have more than one father. So a male hog would have no idea whether or not the young were his – almost any hoglet could theoretically be the young of an active male. The female is solely responsible for the young after birth – the male takes no part in the raising of the young. But, I have found here that male hogs are generally very tolerant of hoglets and even let them push/ease them off a bowl of food!
It seems likely that the hoglets were old enough that the mother had again become interesting to males and that is what probably attracted him to the area and you did suggest that it looked like courtship behaviour.
As the hoglets grow up they leave the mother (at that stage they still appear quite small) and will likely gradually begin to wander further afield. So that could account for the ‘disappearance’ of other hoglets. It may be that the one you continued to see with the mother was a bit more reluctant to go it alone! But hopefully the hoglets will continue to visit your garden, for a while, at least.
There may even be another litter on the way!
Happy hog watching!