Back garden Badger shocker !!
Discussion
Ten minutes ago, I was sitting quietly at the kitchen table when I heard an awful noise outside.
Initially, I thought that it was a squirrel being attacked by a cat. The noise, however, continued for far too long for it to be a swift kill.
So... I pick up the torch and wander outside.
Thinking that it would be the neighbours cat, I was gobsmacked to light up a badger getting the better of a hedgehog !
Quite a shock really, considering that over the past 11 years of living in my house I have never seen any signs of them.
By the time I got back into the house and picked up the camera, the brock had gone... with its mouth full of screaming hedge pig !
I will take a closer look at the woods at the bottom of my garden tomorrow and see if I can find any evidence of a sett. ( a very small wood so not too hard to find runs and tracks)
The only evidence of the attack is a blood stained lawn....
I have seen many badgers in the wild but usually eating peanuts !
This is the first time that I have observed a natural kill.
Anyone else experienced it ??
( sorry for overly long post but my heart is still pounding !! )
Initially, I thought that it was a squirrel being attacked by a cat. The noise, however, continued for far too long for it to be a swift kill.
So... I pick up the torch and wander outside.
Thinking that it would be the neighbours cat, I was gobsmacked to light up a badger getting the better of a hedgehog !
Quite a shock really, considering that over the past 11 years of living in my house I have never seen any signs of them.
By the time I got back into the house and picked up the camera, the brock had gone... with its mouth full of screaming hedge pig !
I will take a closer look at the woods at the bottom of my garden tomorrow and see if I can find any evidence of a sett. ( a very small wood so not too hard to find runs and tracks)
The only evidence of the attack is a blood stained lawn....
I have seen many badgers in the wild but usually eating peanuts !
This is the first time that I have observed a natural kill.
Anyone else experienced it ??
( sorry for overly long post but my heart is still pounding !! )
creationracing said:
But I believe badgers only eat hedgehogs when they're really hungry. And hedgehogs are getting scarce themselves. So probably not exactly a happy state of affairs all in all!
very much this - pouvre hedgehog! You could get a massive sack of peanuts for not much and put them out each evening...would help both species hopefully, and you'd get to see badgers!A little update..
My wife and I went for a wander this afternoon to see if we could find any evidence/aftermath !
Badger hair OR hedgehog belly hair .... Either lost or the Hog fought back !
Some 'Hog meat'
A run ( where it disappeared)
And a couple of shots just for Pferdestarke
My wife and I went for a wander this afternoon to see if we could find any evidence/aftermath !
Badger hair OR hedgehog belly hair .... Either lost or the Hog fought back !
Some 'Hog meat'
A run ( where it disappeared)
And a couple of shots just for Pferdestarke
Edited by viscountdallara on Wednesday 29th April 17:59
In my first week as a student, I got very drunk on pint cocktails and got lost walking back to halls, wandering over the Southampton University campus, through the little stream that runs through and out the other side onto Southampton Common.
As my phone battery died, I sat down under a tree to shelter until the rain passed. I woke up to someone trying to remove my shoes. I thought maybe it was an adventurous tramp who lived in the woods. I woke up to see in the dim moonlight a badger frantically going at my shoelaces as if they were the tastiest thing he had ever discovered.
At the time, I had no idea if they were dangerous or not. I remember it was bloody huge (bigger than they looked on telly) and appeared to have giant teeth. I kicked it away, but it just looked at me funny, then snuffled off. I guess he was after whatever sticky substance had stuck to my shoes off the floor in Jesters.
As my phone battery died, I sat down under a tree to shelter until the rain passed. I woke up to someone trying to remove my shoes. I thought maybe it was an adventurous tramp who lived in the woods. I woke up to see in the dim moonlight a badger frantically going at my shoelaces as if they were the tastiest thing he had ever discovered.
At the time, I had no idea if they were dangerous or not. I remember it was bloody huge (bigger than they looked on telly) and appeared to have giant teeth. I kicked it away, but it just looked at me funny, then snuffled off. I guess he was after whatever sticky substance had stuck to my shoes off the floor in Jesters.
We regularly get 3/4 in the garden turfing up the grass and generally making a bit of a mess.
Sorry about the grainy picture, my little brother's Biology teacher had asked him when he last saw a badger to which he replied last night, it was eating some grain outside (left out for the random ducks and deer that visit)! The teacher told him he was talking rubbish and it probably just a squirrel, so he went back armed with proof!
and the deer/ducks!
Sorry about the grainy picture, my little brother's Biology teacher had asked him when he last saw a badger to which he replied last night, it was eating some grain outside (left out for the random ducks and deer that visit)! The teacher told him he was talking rubbish and it probably just a squirrel, so he went back armed with proof!
and the deer/ducks!
This used to live under an old truck body we store hay in, it co existed with the 4 cats at our stables and eventually moved into the stable feed room, taking over a cardboard box one or other of the cats would occupy at night. It wasn't there long and died a few weeks later so I think it may have been old or unwell and looking for somewhere comfortable to spend it's last days. 
Had similar in my old house where the badgers have managed to keep a sett going in a very small copse area as it was fenced in years ago (palisade fencing to keep people out of an old mine shaft). They're surrounded completely by quite dense housing but I would guess that most people in the area have no idea they are they.
I used to feed them but was woken one night buy horrendous screams to find a badger behind the pond and a hedgehog, that had somehow escaped, swimming in the pond desperately escaping it.
Badgers and hogs don't mix and probably the fact that badgers are getting more successful in urban areas is one of many factors contributing to the decline of hedgehogs as they are never found in densely populated badger areas due to regular predation.
I used to feed them but was woken one night buy horrendous screams to find a badger behind the pond and a hedgehog, that had somehow escaped, swimming in the pond desperately escaping it.
Badgers and hogs don't mix and probably the fact that badgers are getting more successful in urban areas is one of many factors contributing to the decline of hedgehogs as they are never found in densely populated badger areas due to regular predation.
:Flame suit on:
No offence to people in this thread but, I'm absolutely shocked at the number of people who are actively encouraging badgers into their gardens.
I personally do not see the appeal and do not one to make an issue but badgers can be nasty creatures plus the diseases they carry.
Maybe its just the community I have grown up around. Just in couple awe of the number of people in this thread who seem to like badgers.
No offence to people in this thread but, I'm absolutely shocked at the number of people who are actively encouraging badgers into their gardens.
I personally do not see the appeal and do not one to make an issue but badgers can be nasty creatures plus the diseases they carry.
Maybe its just the community I have grown up around. Just in couple awe of the number of people in this thread who seem to like badgers.
RussH91 said:
:Flame suit on:
No offence to people in this thread but, I'm absolutely shocked at the number of people who are actively encouraging badgers into their gardens.
I personally do not see the appeal and do not one to make an issue but badgers can be nasty creatures plus the diseases they carry.
Maybe its just the community I have grown up around. Just in couple awe of the number of people in this thread who seem to like badgers.
I'm always amazed by the number of people who don't like badgers, or indeed wildlife in general. But some people are just odd I suppose.No offence to people in this thread but, I'm absolutely shocked at the number of people who are actively encouraging badgers into their gardens.
I personally do not see the appeal and do not one to make an issue but badgers can be nasty creatures plus the diseases they carry.
Maybe its just the community I have grown up around. Just in couple awe of the number of people in this thread who seem to like badgers.
What diseases have the badgers given you? Herpes or something else?
They can be nasty though, we've got a gang of them near me who often throw things at passing cars and do tend to intimidate and shout at people walking on their own etc.
Actually, thinking back that was local teenagers not badgers.
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