Hi Nic,
I prefer the first theory as well as, when I have inadvertently disturbed a hog, they usually freeze then run off to where they feel safe I guess but they nearly always come back minutes later.
As well as the local neighbourhood I have also given some posters to the allotments near where I live as I suspect that is where the hog stronghold is and where the hogs in my garden emanate from.
They kindly agreed to put them up and they have been true to their word. I also had a chat with their group about hogs in general and pleased to say one lady had hogs near her plot and told me she had seen 2 hoglets and she was feeding them wet cat food which they were happily eating and told her that was great but told her no mealworms!
We went for a walk round the allotments and there was so many great places for hogs and other wildlife (I understand that they had Kent Wildlife Trust in to give them advice so they are definitely doing their bit) with wood piles, untidy areas and no doubt plenty of natural food for the hogs to eat.
They asked me about slug pellets and told them best to avoid these as not only hogs, but other wildlife, could be poisoned either directly through ingesting them or indirectly by eating the poisoned slugs etc. They said that they now only use ferric phosphate slug pellets, which they told me were wildlife friendly, but unfortunately I didn’t know enough about these to comment. I have done some post meeting research and these do seem to be promoted as wildlife friendly but still think that its better to avoid chemicals if possible (would be good to hear if others have a view on these?).
Anyway bonfire weekend has arrived so lets hope our hog friends will have a safe night.
