What could have killed our hedgehog?
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I am absolutely gutted to find that our visiting hedgehog appears to have been killed by a predator. We have found the skin and spines of a hedgehog at the bottom of our garden and I am incredibly upset. The hedgehog had been a regular summer visitor coming to our garden to eat fallen apples and plums and we sometimes put hedgehog kibble out for it too. Has anyone else had this happen? I am now wondering what could have killed it. We do not have badgers here, but there are foxes, stoats/weasels and tawny owls in the area, all of which are mentioned on this site as possible culprits. We do not think our elderly dog could have done it.
Awe thats heart breaking I am so sorry, I really have no clue what could have happened, I thought they were pretty much safe from predation with their defences, If anything I would guess at a fox. If they are skilled they could avoid the spines.
I am so sorry to hear this I’m gutted for you. Our hedgehogs have also been killed. Foxes wait for them to unfurl then grab their back legs as the hogs run off. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I miss them so much. Don’t know what to do about it.
Hi Kaz39tyas
Sorry to hear about the poor dead hog. It’s always very upsetting when we have got to know a hog and this happens.
Is it an area of your garden you visit frequently, or could it have been dead for a while? (i.e. died naturally.) In which case it could be almost anything which ate it.
If it has newly appeared, the most likely suspect is a badger. I know you said that there aren’t badgers around, but sometimes a solitary badger will pass through an area for some reason, i.e. possibly been displaced from it’s previous home, etc. It’s possible it could be a fox. Many foxes leave hogs alone, but a few foxes have apparently been known to wait until the hogs unroll and then pounce.
The best thing to do if you have foxes around, as a precaution, is to only feed the hogs in a safe place. Although a bit difficult to protect them from feeding where the fruit is. (The hogs are most likely to have been visiting the area where the fallen fruit were to eat the insects which they attracted, rather than the fruit itself.)
Sadly, you might never know what happened.
Thank you for your helpful replies everyone. Aw Christina, sorry to hear this has happened to you too! After reading another post here on the forum, I logged the dead hedgehog on the ‘garden wildlife health’ site and received a very nice reply from the wildlife vet who said, like you Nic, that whilst it is likely to have been predated it may also possibly have died and been scavenged later. We do go in that area daily but it’s possible we may have missed seeing it sooner. I guess we’ll never know. I’m going to continue encouraging hedgehogs to visit and hope one day we will get another visitor. I’m also going to have a go at making a feeding station which might offer some protection to any future hogs.
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