Protective hedgehog.
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Last night there were 2 smaller and 1 larger hogs at the feeding bowls. The 2 smaller ones fed from the same dish quite tolerant of each other. The larger one was on the left of the path and fed and drank quite happily. After it had finished the large one moved across and walked around the 2 smaller ones a couple of times. It then pushed one of them off the feeding dish causing it to be defensive and roll up. It was pushed 2 to 3 feet away and it was then encircled by the larger one several times and then left alone. The larger one returned to the food dish an sniffed around the smaller one and then just sat down until the smaller one had finished and walked off. The other small one had already left by then. The large one was left alone to feed before wandering off up the garden. It seems odd that the large one was aggressive to one and not the other. Any explanations for this type of behaviour?
Hi Feedat930
It’s hard to say for sure what is happening, especially without actually seeing it, but I suspect the two small ones are youngsters.
The one who was pushed away could have been a male and the other a female. But also it’s possible it was a young female (probably the less likely of the two potential explanations) who was scared of the large male approaching and so rolled up defensively. He may then have been nudging it to try to get it to unroll and it just got pushed along in the process. 2 – 3 feet is not far to be rolled, in hedgehog terms if he was being aggressive.
It’s an interesting thing that hogs, both male and female tend to be very tolerant of hoglets, letting them eat at a bowl and even nudge the adult hog out of the way. He may have decided that the small hog at the bowl was young enough to fit into that category. It may have smelt ambiguous. Being tolerant of hoglets is more normal in the year they are born, but these days when some are born so late, maybe it has run into the next year as well.
This is of course, all supposition. It’s hard enough to say what’s going on if you actually see it, let alone from a description, but it might give you some ideas of things that might happen.
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