Badgers and hedgehogs
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Sorry to say that the most active hedgehog predator is also protected. Badgers are the only animal in britain capable of killing hedgehogs (badgers are strong enough to unroll hedgehogs). with badger nubers so high (no natural predators) it is the end for the hedgehog) hedgehogs on the Uist islands in the Outer Hebrides are bieng removed to save the birds. they are so prolific due to the fact that there are no badgers there. so control badgers and save the hedgehog!!!
I would just like to point out that this is a pro-hedgehog Forum, not an anti-badger one. In any case, you are wrong. Foxes can also kill hedgehogs. They just wait until they unroll and then pounce.
The case of Uist is not comparable. Hedgehogs were introduced to Uist and we all know what problems can be caused by introduced species, without careful thought.
I would suggest that far more hedgehogs are killed by humans than by badgers (on roads, in gardens, etc.). Not to mention that we have been destroying their habitat.
Badgers and hedgehogs have both been persecuted in the past. One should not be played off against the other. We need to create more habitat for both.
Sorry just seems strange that they have dissapeared from an area of relative wilderness. basically 3 miles where there is only an oil storage farm and an ex MOD mine depot. this is well over 500 acres of pristine wild area with no roads or herbicide use. No hedgehogs loads of badgers and foxes though. The garden backs onto a field used only for grazing with holes in the hedges then wilderness for 3 miles. Should be hedgehog heaven but none ever seen. There are far more badgers around now than 50 years ago. I would say they have trebled in number.
Humans are a hedgehog predator also, given the amount of hedgehogs that die due to cars, we aren’t allowed to avoid a hedgehog crossing if we are on a busy road, only people on quieter roads do so, even if the law says we aren’t supposed to, only dogs have that protection. Which makes sure that you can’t kill another human for the sake of a small animal, which makes sense. If I was driving and I had the choice of bumping into another car to save a small animal, unfortunately I would have to choose not to bump into another car as the risk of causing damage to another human, which would be an unbearable situation to put yourself in.
But yes, unfortunately badgers need food – just like a killer whale needs seals for food – it’s just nature, and we can’t interfere with it really – we can only take more responsibility as a human and curb our behaviours to protect nature as far as we can, but then leave nature to get the food that they need, even though it’s very upsetting for us.
I have just, after a year, started to make friends with my local fox (friends as in I’m more ok with it and feeling less angry with it for being around and not having murderous thoughts towards the fox, not friends as in going up to it and petting it). But all I can do with the fox, is make the feeding station more and more fox proof as time goes on – as they are very clever and find different ways of out smarting you, I have found – and the advice on this forum is generally do not feed the foxes, but I have decided to leave a little bit out now and again, because after one year of not feeding the foxes at all, they still come into my garden every single night.
I would be very unhappy if I saw a badger in my area, and if I rescue a hedgehog again I’d tell the rescue centre that I have a badger in my area and they would decide if the hedgehog would come back to me or not. But for me, in my area, there is just foxes, and the rescue centre know about this, and they are still willing to put back the hedgehogs that I have rescued in my area. They have foxes too in their own gardens and yes it’s an issue – but we can’t do much about it. We can’t shield the hedgehogs away from every danger out there, because to so they would just end up in captivity and have very miserable lives. They aren’t like dogs who live like very comfortable lives in our houses, they would just be horrendously miserable.
Nature is cruel, but then us humans are also very dangerous – but at least we can have the ability to curb ourselves a bit to protect nature.
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