Hedgehog decline due to badgers?
I AM a lover of all wildlife and spend time feeding birds and hedgehogs in my garden. I have always had several hogs visiting during the night and for that reason I installed a trail camera.
Three years ago I saw that a badger was visiting but also noticed a decline in the hedgehog visits. I also found the skins of three dead hogs that had been eaten from the inside out, typical badger behaviour. I picked up several hedgehog visits, but also two badger visits recently.
I was horrified to watch videos of the badger killing the hedgehog on the trail camera yesterday morning. The screams of the hedgehog were unbearable, something I do not ever want to witness again.
For all badger lovers, please think again. Hedgehogs are in such decline and badgers on the increase, the statistics must be linked. Although I am not in the group that call for badgers to be culled, I really think that the time has come to protect our beloved hedgehogs from such brutality that I picked up on my trail camera this week. Jean Crossley, Suffolk
Wendy says This must have been very distressing for you, Jean. The website 8 ptes.org discusses this in a statement from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society: “While badgers may play a role in hedgehog decline locally, hedgehogs are absent in many areas where there are no badgers, and in areas where nesting and feeding sites are plentiful, the two species co-exist. Badgers are known to kill and eat hedgehogs, but they feed on earthworms and beetle larvae, which are also favoured by hedgehogs. Competition for the same food, and predation, may result in areas where badger numbers are high. Long-term declines in hedgehog numbers is more likely due to a combination of factors, including habitat loss or degradation, and road casualties. Culling badgers is unlikely to save hedgehogs. The conservation of rural hedgehogs is better achieved by increasing the quality of habitats that support both hedgehogs and badgers.”