Foxes and Hedgehogs

[Cormac]

Hi all,

I set out a trail camera in the garden last week. I’ve had hedgehogs visiting all year; I had at least 4 adults and 3 young. The young started arriving maybe early July.

On last night’s pictures and video clips, I caught a fox twice. I was wondering how much danger the hogs would be from the fox; the hoglets, I believe would be in more danger than the adults ? How big would the young have to be before they’re relatively safe ?

Thanks,

[Nic]

Hi Cormac

Some foxes don’t bother hogs, but others (seemingly a minority) are known to kill them – also young foxes are thought to sometimes ‘play’ with hedgehogs and sometimes cause leg injuries. So I wouldn’t totally trust a fox and certainly wouldn’t feed hedgehogs and foxes side by side. But would try to create a fox proof area where the hogs can feed in safety.

The foxes who become specialists in killing hedgehogs apparently wait until the hogs unroll and then pounce, so in those circumstances an adult probably wouldn’t be safe either.

Good luck, I hope the foxes there are ones that leave hogs alone.

[Carol Stevens]

Back in July 2020 my husband looked out our window as he could hear foxes. He saw them ‘playing’ with a baby hedgehog, swinging it around by its foot. He went out and ‘rescued’ it. It had lost some of its toes on one foot so we put it in a box with a towel and a dish of water and bathed its foot. Later in the day we took it to a local wildlife hospital. Hopefully that is one saved. There was a another dead baby in next doors garden.
We have a hedgehog house in our garden and often see 2 adults after dark. We put put food for them and chase off any foxes or cats that appear. We think maybe the female is pregnant again as she is stuffing the house full of dried leaves and grass. Hope if/when she has them we will see them about.

[Hector]

We have a cold frame in our garden which makes an excellent hedgehog feeder. Just put a hole in the side and even easy to put a camera in with the food. Got some excellent footage

[Nic]

A cold frame sounds a brilliant idea – as long as you don’t want to use it for plants!

[Cormac]

Thanks for all the answers, sorry for having taken so long to get back to you.

It’s good news, though – the fox I’m getting has shown no interest in harming the hogs. He / she gives actually them a pretty wide berth, by the looks of it – if a hog approaches, it’ll tend to back off.

It seems I’ve been getting fewer visits this last few weeks, though. I’m assuming some of the summer hoglets have maybe dispersed. I hope they’ll make it through to spring.

[Nic]

Hi Cormac

I’m glad to hear that things are going well there, with the hogs. Most of the hogs who haven’t already, will be drifting off to hibernate soon, so that might be why there are fewer around. Fingers crossed for them all over the winter.

[Author]

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