Hedghogs have vanished
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After seeing at least 4 hogs on cameras and feeding at night in my 2 food stations and my nieghbors,our hogs have not been seen for well
over a month now,we have hog highway between many houses in our cul de sac ,and no hogs have been seen as road kill. .
there is not even signs of hog poo .Hi MICKJAM
This seems to happen every year, when hogs seem to disappear from some areas. There can be all sorts of potential reasons. But hedghogs have fairly large ranges, so it may be that they are visiting other parts of their ranges.
This year there is also the potential problem that people on lockdown may have been repairing their fences, somewhere along the hedgehogs route to you. But also someone else may have started feeding. Etc.
The good thing is that the hogs normally return at some stage, so fingers crossed the same thing will happen there.
We have a similar experience. So excited to see hedgehog for first time this year, and on 24 June Mum and 5 hoglets appeared from under our shed. We have been feeding and filming them progressing (getting braver coming out to feed and returning under the shed) . Gradually over 1 week we saw them individually . A week ago we saw another adult pushing around the Mum, we think mating. Very little sighting of Mum in the night and now nothing recorded and no food eaten for 3 nights.
What has happened, surely even wandering they would visit for the food?
we have even made a hibernating hut for later! So disappointed as we have had to wait 20 years for this. Any advice?
HeatherHi Woodhouse
How lovely that you had hoglets there. There isn’t really a lot you can do if they go walkabout, except keep leaving out supplementary food and water. Hopefully they will return (or at least some of them) before hibernation. But don’t worry some of them usually do return eventually.
Same here. Last year and also during the early stages of lockdown we had images on the trail camera of four or five visits a night, sometimes as many as three hogs at a time. Now we get just the odd hog quite intermitantly. However there does seem to be more foxes around through the night. Could this be the cause? Although the camera has captured images of a hedgehog and a fox eating from the same ground feeder.
Now I see our female every 2 nights.
We have put the food under a low platform, so the fox and cat cannot get to it.
Last night we saw a badger. This is worrying as we now wonder if it has had the hogs? We have never captured a badger before, despite coverage every night for 6 weeks now.Hi cityman
Whilst some foxes leave the hogs alone others apparently become specialists at hog killing (sounds like a minority, but bad luck – for you and the hogs – if you happen to be in that area). So if I had foxes around, I would try to create a fox proof feeding area, so that the hogs could eat in peace there. Apparently what the foxes do is wait until a hog unrolls and then pounce. If hogs and foxes are eating side by side the hog will already be unrolled, so an easy target.
Hi Woodhouse
Yes, the badger is bad news for the hogs, or in particular the way we feed the hogs. Sometimes if a badger is resident in an area the hogs will move out. It’s possible it’s passing through, but if it’s set up home there, you might have to stop feeding the hogs. Badgers and hogs compete for food, but also badgers are hedgehogs main predator. That is not to demonise badgers. It’s not their fault that we humans have destroyed much of the habitat for both them and hedgehogs. In an ideal world there would be sufficient for both and both species would achieve a natural balance.
In reality, the best thing everyone can do for the hogs (and the badgers) is improve the habitat in their gardens so that there is more natural food for them. If the hog is finding natural food, it seems likely it will be more alert to dangers, than if it is lulled into a false sense of security in a feeding area.
But fingers crossed the badger is just passing through.
Hi all, up until a month ago I had 3 hogs visiting every night and one was resident in my hog house for nearly two months. Then they disappeared. It’s always a worry but, from experience, this happens every year and they return in the spring. The difference this year is that they arrived earlier and left earlier probably due to the mild winter and very warm weather from March onwards.
We’re also foster carers for Warwickshire Hedgehog Rescue and have had our first hog for rehabilitation and now release. The rescue centre does seem to be receiving a lot of hoglets this year so there’s plenty of hog business to keep us going.
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