Hedgehog sighting
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One of our dogs was attracted to something in our garden last week it was well after midnight. I went to check and it was a hedgehog, I put my dog inside and checked the hedgehog was fine and it eventually wandered into the bushes. This is the 3rd year running we have had hedgehogs in our garden, we are in Thetford.
Hi Apple73
That’s great news that there is a hog there, again! Not sure how well trained your dogs are, but for the benefit of your dogs and the hog, make sure they don’t try to pick the hog up. That wouldn’t be good for either of them!
There may already be good access to other gardens for the hog, but in case not here is some information re. hog highways:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/link-your-garden/I hope the hog continues to do well. Good luck and happy hog watching!
Been spotting a hedgehog in our back garden for the last few evenings, but for the last 2 nights there’s been a lot of “chuffing” going on. Around 10pm last night saw 3 hedgehogs, one (presumably male) circling round another (female?) and chasing off the third. Thought we’d lost them completely as no signs of them in the garden up until now and we’d stopped putting out food as it wasn’t being eaten. Now back to feeding & putting water out, and chuffed to bits! We live in North Yorkshire.
I wonder if anyone has experienced predation of hedgehogs by foxes?
Since September 2021 I fed hogs under 2 up-turned boxes in my garden; I was surprised and delighted that 3 to 5 hogs visited each night until December. Hog visits dropped off in January but 2 male hogs over-wintered in a nest box in my garden; I could see them on camera feeding at night.
In early June this year I noticed a couple of visiting hogs had injured hind legs- very upsetting to see – but they could still move fast and were difficult to catch. At the same time, a male fox occasionally visited my garden for a couple of minutes – he showed little interest in the food underneath the upturned boxes – but ran once round the garden sniffing and disappeared. I then found a dead curled-up hog in a nearby alley running between neighbours’ gardens. The hog’s underbelly had a fox-size bite taken out of it. I was shocked to see this and immediately stopped feeding hedgehogs as I was afraid a visiting fox might kill a hedgehog in my garden. I have not seen one hedgehog in my garden since I stopped leaving food out. A female fox now visits my garden at roughly 3 am to feed on slugs! I would really like to feed hedgehogs but am afraid a fox will kill them.
I’d be glad to hear from anyone who has experienced anything similar.
Hi Rad
Sorry to hear about the problem with the fox. I haven’t had a problem here, but have heard of various problems elsewhere. Apparently, young foxes sometimes play, chasing the hogs and sometimes bite off hind legs.
But also apparently some adult foxes become hog catching experts. I’m told they wait for the hog to unroll and then pounce on the belly area – which fits in with the poor hog you found. Sadly, once they learn this behaviour, it seems unlikely they will stop and if they have any youngsters, it’s possible they could learn the same behaviour from their parent.
So I think you are wise stopping feeding the hogs. I know it is sad, but the hogs may not be so wary approaching and leaving feeding areas, even if a fox could not get into the actual feeding station. I imagine if the hogs were foraging for wild food, they might be more alert.
Maybe the best thing to do is to make your garden as wildlife friendly as you can, so that the hogs can forage for wild food, when you might still see them.
Sorry not to give better news. But, good luck to the hogs in the area – hope that they can evade that fox.
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