Hedgehogs - Very few about!

FrenchieBoy

Well-Known Member
The night before last I noticed a hedgehog on the lawn at the front of our flats. You might think that is nothing out of the ordinary but I used to see them on a very regular basis around our flats, sometimes two or three at the same time, but this is the first one I have seen near our flats this year.
Are you guys that are "out and about" during the night noticing fewer hedgehogs this year than in previous years?
 
havent seen many hedgehogs, but on a totally separate note the badgers seem to be getting on well :rofl:
 
If you can put them somewhere they won't get stolen, try placing trail cameras in likely places.
 
havent seen many hedgehogs, but on a totally separate note the badgers seem to be getting on well :rofl:

Yes quite - and the crop damage seems higher along with damage to pens and fencing - strange... but I have noticed an increase in dead badgers on the side of the road!?! Less hedgehogs squashed but more badgers uummhhh....
 
Very, very few hedgehogs round here, the last one I saw was a couple of years age. I picked it up and brought it into the garden to keep it safe from the vast population of badgers. Next morning I went out to find it and it was floating in the small pond where it had fallen in and drowned. I was gutted!!
 
On our trip to Sutherland earlier this month both my wife and I remarked on the number of hedgehogs we saw squashed on the road. Unfortunate, of course, but hopefully a sign of a decent population. Down here in Oxfordshire it is getting to be very rare indeed that we spy a hedgehog carcase, let alone a live one. Five or six years ago we used to see them regularly in our garden, but no longer.

As others have said, the badger population has expanded in that same period....not that I'd ever suggest the two are related of course :rolleyes:
 
I've not seen any, but dead otters are also starting to appear at roadsides.
The balance between magpies and songbirds is another theme, unless you blame cats, of course.
 
Well, I live in Sutherland and the drop in the hedgehog population around us is significantly striking. It used to be they would feed alongside the pine martens on our steps but there have been none this year, so far. The last one in the garden was very shaky and wobbly which apparently is some sort of fatal syndrome for them, and it killed that one.

John

On our trip to Sutherland earlier this month both my wife and I remarked on the number of hedgehogs we saw squashed on the road. Unfortunate, of course, but hopefully a sign of a decent population. Down here in Oxfordshire it is getting to be very rare indeed that we spy a hedgehog carcase, let alone a live one. Five or six years ago we used to see them regularly in our garden, but no longer.

As others have said, the badger population has expanded in that same period....not that I'd ever suggest the two are related of course :rolleyes:
 
Just a thought with zero evidence to back it up. Any animal builds up immunity to the viruses around them. No viruses, no immunity. We wiped out native populations with our ills as we spread them around the world. I wonder what effect the 50,000 released by the rspb, by popular support from those that hate anything to die, from the islands had on the gene pool. Their immune system would be weaker due to lack of exposure?
 
I saw one just outside my place two nights ago - It was big, strong & healthy - Moved quite quickly too!

Ian

The one I saw the other night was also quite big, strong and healthy - A rare treat to see around here nowadays!
Just like most others we have a strong thriving/expanding Badger population around here. I suspect that this is a major factor in the decline of the hedgehog! When will these silly and uneducated (In Country matters) "furry friend huggers" realise this and start admitting that "Old Brock" is not quite as innocent as many try to make him out to be?
 
Not seen any prob due to most in towns now use gravel boards n' fence panels ! not as it was years ago with chain link fence and every one talked sadly them times are way gone for most inc the hedge pig access has been stopped I used to get fox's but they now know best to stay away ;)
 
We get a few hedgehogs around here - but only in built-up places. Anywhere there are badgers, they've vanished.
 
We have a shedload of foxes, but no badgers that I'm aware of. Once in a while, I find this chap or another of his family in my squirrel trap in the mornings. I don't know whether it's the same one over and over again or not. I have discovered that you can't shoo a hedgehog away. I just set them free, and check when I return after work that they've gone, which they always are. Which suggests foxes don't like them, unlike squirrels.

Hedgehog1.jpgHedgehog2.jpg
 
I can't remember the last hedgehog I saw either dead or alive. 10 years ago I used to see them all the time. As previously said the badger population seems to be doing really well and see plenty of them dead on the side of the road.
 
I keep seeing one or two locally, not seen any for years then suddenly a few pop up.

not many brock near here though,
 
Very few around here . I have watched a Badger catch , open up a hedgehog and eat it. I have seen this happen 3 times in the last 2 years, whilst I was sitting in a high seat.Wf1
 
Plenty out and about at dusk on the organic farm here in Suffolk - but then again no badgers, few if any very scared squirrels, no slug pellets and corvids have signs up saying beware no fly zone - but then we amateur countryside keepers know nothing about the countryside - do we?
 
No hogs around here, haven't seen any in the six years we've lived here. Five badgers on the lawn one night last week though.
 
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I was out the other night and there were more hedgehogs than rabbits....I have never seen so many probably around 7 or 8 in one area
 
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