Badgers and Hedgehogs! and other bits….

[mikesouth]

Well looks like my stray cat has eventually moved on, not seen that for a couple of weeks now, so lets hope that has disappeared but…read on…now I have a Badger, they are as they are part of natures wonderful experience but for two weeks now I have had one come in once a week up to now and destroy what ever version of Fort Knox I put out as a feeding station just to get at the food and then move on. My hedgehogs have disappeared but that was last week after some heavy feeding sessions and I haven’t seen any since, now this could be that, and I am presuming here it was a female and she could of gone off to have her hoglets? or will the presence and smell of a Badger put the hedgehogs off from coming into my garden. I am still putting a revised menu out see my previous thread of “Whats in your dish”. I’ve also not seen any foxes in my garden for a while either but my new design of feeding inside a storage box may have stopped them as well. My cameras are live every night and I hope and pray my hedgehogs will come back. Anyone any thoughts?

[Nic]

Hi mikesouth

I believe that often if there are badgers in an area, there aren’t hedgehogs. Whether that is because the hedgehogs have decided to keep clear or whether the population has diminished because badgers have been eating hogs, I don’t know. But hogs aren’t safe with badgers around.

You might like to read https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/hedgehog-predated-by-badger/ from the forum, recently.

It’s possible, in your case, it was a badger passing through, who having found a food source hung around for a while. But if the badger is resident in the area the hogs may not return. Personally, I wouldn’t want to risk feeding the hogs if there are resident badgers around. They would be a sitting target.

The ideal thing for hogs is to make your garden as good a habitat for them as you can, so that they can find natural food – as well as linking as many gardens together as possible via a hedgehogs highway. If the hogs decided to stay in the area, despite the badgers, finding natural food would give them a better chance of evading the badgers. Better habitat for hogs would also be better habitat for badgers – less likely they would need to kill hedgehogs if there was plenty of other natural food around.

Sorry, probably not, entirely, what you wanted to hear. But, also possible a female could go missing for a while when producing youngsters.

[stef]

Nic is right, your hogs have almost certainly moved on, or at worst been eaten. As long as your badger is still coming you are unlikely to see another hog. I would recommend stopping feeding to encourage the badger to move off.
While they are lovely creatures also, they are increasing in population as fast as hedgehogs are declining.
We really need to make urban living safe for hedgehogs and not badgers if we want to see them continue to survive in this country

[mikesouth]

Hi,
Thank you so much for your information, it is then with a very sad heart that I think from tonight I will stop my feeding station.
I have had hedgehogs in my garden now for a few years as far as I know but I am sure something similar happened last year where about this time the hogs disappeared and did not show again. Obviously they reappeared this year but all noted and taken in.
My garden as well as my elderly neighbour are perfect for hogs I am sure as we both have access to each others through a hedge only and even though I tend my garden there are wild area left to grow undisturbed and full of food etc. It is 100 by 80 foot and I do have 2 hedgehog houses placed hidden amongst the wild areas. I have a hedgehog whole cut in my back wooden fence to access the golf course at the back and also a stream with access to water with log piles and branches scattered around so there are plenty of ground life for everyone.
Anyway sorry got carried away there a bit, Ni & Stef have you any time frame for the stopping of feeding? Should I try again in a months time?
I think I will switch my camera over to my nest boxes then and watch my 5 blue tit chicks being feed and growing up.
Thanks again for the help, even though as you say its not particular what I wanted to hear, lets hope I can still support them in other ways.

[stef]

I’d keep an eye out and if you no longer see the badgers then start feeding again ( or of course if you see a hedgehog )
You could try making a feeding station that a badger cannot access/destroy in the meantime
Sorry it’s not helpful. When I had a badger visiting I stopped for several months and physically chased it off every time it came into my garden. It worked in the end but it’s always a worry
Happy bird watching in the meantime

[mikesouth]

Hi Everyone,

Well Im back up and running now with no signs of Badgers for well over 2 months now and Ive a new cam hardwired in as well its brill. Ive started feeding again now and made a new feeding station with a new storage box and a 6 inch angle bend main pipe feed inside in the storage box with a little step inside and a slope with a roughed up entrance floor in the angled pipe.
Next was the cats!…my new cams brill ..did I say that before?…lol, and I watched as the cats looked at the entrance but did not make any attempt to enter the new entrance into the feeding station…hurrah!, thanks Nic and Stef for the advice.
The sad bit of the tale now is that I have not seen any hedgehogs or their poo in my garden for a long few months now, so, I have started spreading a little bit of food around the garden in the evening as a hopeful treat, its attracted the cats back in but there delt with now I just hope the hogs can smell the food as well and it will attract them back in.
Am I right as they can smell food over a great distance?
I know last year they re-appeared around October time and fed and fed for about a month before obviously going into hibernation.
Sorry its a bit of a long post but I just wanted to thanks all those people on HHS who have posted stuff and given me a better idea of how, what where and why. Thanks.
I just hope I haven’t lost them for good now?

[5sandown]

I’ve had 2 or 3 hogs feeding for the last few years and now monitor them with a garden camera. We had a badger last year and working with my neighbour we managed to put it off but I heard this year that’s it’s moved elsewhere in the close, presumably for easier pickings. Badgers are definitely bad news for hogs. I volunteer in the gardens of a local National Trust property with a large badger population. As a result there are no hogs in an environment that would normally be perfect for them. All the hogs disappeared in September last year but reappeared in April this year so who knows where they go! I did put in a hedgehog house this year and within a week I had a resident who is still here two months later. I’m hoping it will hibernate here but……..

[Nic]

Hi mikesouth

Sadly, if the hogs come back, they may take a little while before they felt safe enough. Also, if any that survived found a new home which they liked, why would they come back, until/unless the population increased and they spread out a bit again. I imagine it varies a bit from place to place and different circumstances, etc. But it may be a bit of a waiting game. But you might find that when the hoglets begin to disperse a bit, and particularly after hibernation next year, you might have some luck.

Meanwhile try to link as many gardens as possible so that hogs have a comparatively safe route to get around to enough suitable habitat. I think I saw elsewhere that you had a constant source of water, although I hope it isn’t too deep for hoglets.

Good luck hopefully some hogs will appear – as long as that badger stays away.

[mikesouth]

Hi Nic,
Yep water isn’t even a inch deep and my ponds all have easy slopes for hogs to escape from, My next door garden has easy access next to mine and we both have hog gaps onto the golf course at the back of us.

I have often thought about asking if I can be a release site for hogs as I do believe it would be a good spot.

I also have two hedgehog homes in my garden but these have not been occupied yet, but theres a chance I hope for hibernation this year. I will leave a lot of my leaves etc around and hope there is an uptake.

Cheers.

[Author]

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