Accessibility Homepage Skip navigation Sitemap

Forum

Register and log in to gain access to our forums and chat about everything 'hedgehog'!

Thank you for looking to contribute to the Hedgehog Street forum. Please note that when submitting replies or posts, these are run through our spam-checkers, so there may be a slight delay in your posts appearing, and reflecting in the forum post details below. However, if you think anything has gone awry please contact us.

The views and opinions expressed in this forum do not necessarily represent the views of PTES or BHPS.

Home Forums Hedgehog signs and sightings Predator or scavenger? Reply To: Predator or scavenger?

#40041
Avatar photo
Nic

Hi K@

Yes, our cute hedgehogs can be predators as well. They are opportunists so that if a sickly bird attracts their attention, they could kill it. Jumping, etc. would probably be unrealistic, so it’s likely that any bird would have become past flying. It seems most likely that it would eat it pretty much where it found it – i.e. not take it to their normal feeding area as cats might do. I know it is quite a shocking sight as we tend to think of hedgehogs as being more benign. But as with everything related to nature and wildlife the hedgehog may have had young ones back in a nest, or need to build itself up after raising hoglets, etc. prior to hibernation.

I doubt whether a hedgehog would have stolen it from a cat – I would have thought the cat would have picked it up and carried it off, if necessary. Although never say never! However, a cat might have killed it and left it – as cats sometimes do, or it could have died (of whatever was wrong with it) before the hedgehog found it. They will scavenge as well.

There have been reports previously on the forum of a sickly pigeon being killed by a hedgehog. The consolation is that if a bird becomes so unwell that a hedgehog could catch and kill it, if it hadn’t been caught it may have suffered a more lingering and potentially painful death.

I also have experience, myself, of a hedgehog catching and eating a young fledgling. Again I suspect it was unwell and probably out of it’s nest sooner than it should have been – it shouldn’t have been on the ground. I heard a terrible noise and dashed out thinking something might be attacking a hedgehog, but it turned out to be the other way round. But, as said, quite shocking which was added to by the noise.

Hopefully you don’t think too hardly of the hedgehog – a clever hedgehog taking advantage of what it was presented with, even if shocking for us – to start with. But thanks for sharing the episode with us. It’s always interesting to hear what our prickly friends are getting up to!

Hedgehog