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Hedgehogs – you couldn’t dream them up really could you? If you hadn’t seen one (you have seen one haven’t you?) then would they seem any more likely than the unicorn?
Hedgehogs seem to be getting rarer for a variety of reasons here, here and here) – one of which might well be that badgers are partial to gobbling them up.
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I’m a bit disappointed you are so happy to implicate badgers for the hedgehog decline Mark, without any discussion or context. Your links mainly appeared to reference hearsay. The closest to a reliable source I could see was Marina Pacheco of the Mammal Society stating “There is some evidence that where badger densities are high, hedgehog populations are low or absent” – correlation, not causation it seems to me. She adds: “Badgers do eat hedgehogs, so there is probably a direct link, but habitat degradation also plays its part because where hedges are too thin, it doesn’t provide a refuge where hedgehogs can hide from badgers.” So surprise, surprise it is the fundamental degradation of our countryside that is the root of the problem. Last time I checked hedgehogs and badgers co-evolved, so in a healthy ecosystem would be getting along fine (else hedgehogs would have gone extinct long ago). Encouraging people to believe badgers are somehow solely responsible for the decline in hedgehogs is dangerous and irresponsible. I would be surprised if they caused more hedgehog mortality than motor vehicles, but the point is losses from both might be sustained if there was enough hedgehog friendly habitat around, rather than the enormous, pesticide-ravaged, open fields surrounded by unmaintained, thin hedging we see so much of.
“Encouraging people to believe badgers are somehow solely responsible for the decline in hedgehogs is dangerous and irresponsible”
Did we read the same blog Hugh ? I actually thought letter published in the Telegraph was quite amusing, thanks for the link Mark. In general most of the letters published in the Telegraph, alongwith those published in the Mail & Express are a much underated source of entertainment.
Mark,
Oh no; not Badgers again and on a weekend !
All I can say is that I have a lifetime survey going on down on my small patch of land which is conveniently 100ha. Up to about the early 90,s we had one set which while being large never seemed to vary much in terms of holes used I.e active sets from year to year and the population had remained stable pre this for several years. For some reason there was a massive increase in activity followed by numerous new sets running up to 2000 and we went from one set per 100 hectares to eleven separate active sets each with their own territory. Since 2000 and especially after the last few very harsh winters the number of active sets is definitely declining and I see several abandoned sets. I suspect that we now fit somewhere mid profile in my very unscientific study at six sets on 100 hectares.
Warmer winters have I think been the biggest factor but I also feel (without any proof I hasten to add) that the changes in the woodland canopy caused by the increased deer pressure has had an effect.
Not seen a Hedgehog for years, I almost certain there are none left now and ground nesting birds very thin. I’m not casting unscientific dispersions on the Badgers just reporting on personal observations.
I think Walkers Crisps need to accept their share of the blame for the decline, shame that the Cajun Squirrel flavour never took off.
http://www.childofthe1980s.com/2009/01/15/hedgehog-flavoured-crisps/
I met one of their “Flavour Technologists” in a field, once, who claimed “Prawn Cocktail” as one of hers and that no prawns were harmed specifically for the manufacture of the delicious, healthy, nutritious crisps. She seemed proud of this.
I used to like hedgehogs until I realised the damage they cause to ground nesting birds. The difference in breeding birds between scottish islands with and without hedgehogs is obvious. Introduced hedgehogs on South Uist were believed to be responsible for a 60% decline in some breeding waders
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2488-hedgehog-massacre-planned-on-scottish-islands.html
That’s from 10 years ago. The latest evidence is rather more mixed about how much effect hedgehogs actually had.
http://www.snh.org.uk/data/boards_and_committees/scientific_advisory_papers/2011-Mar/SAC_2011_1_6_BoardPaperAttachment.pdf
The BTO is doing a study on this. “Predation studies on breeding of the Uist machair” in 2012 breeding season but I don’t see the paper yet.
Rob the paper you cite gives lots of evidence to show that hedgehog predation lowers breeding success of ground nesters. For example;
“a scientifically robust demonstration that breeding waders achieve higher breeding success on North Uist and Benbecula (when hedgehog free) than they do on South Uist (where hedgehog density remains high)”
The report also says
“there is currently no statistically valid evidence that the
UWP has resulted in an upturn in wader populations.”
Which is why it recommended the BTO do a study on the effects of hedgehog predation.
Furthermore, waders also declined in areas of the Uists with no hedgehogs. Another report to SNH states
“we suggest that our comparison of repeated annual surveys confirms that although the machair continues to support an internationally important assemblage of breeding waders, there have been some important changes in the populations of some species that will have been driven by factors other than predation of eggs by hedgehogs”
So, there were undoubtably other factors contributing to the decline in some wader numbers in the Uists, and removing the hedgehogs may not have made a significant difference. That evidence suggests that their impact might not have been as great as was suggested in 2002.
Of course Badgers are part of the cause as estimates say numbers have doubled but the biggest cause by far that we have less Hedgehogs has to be vehicles killing them.Think this habitat destruction is the same old drivel of hedgerow destruction churned out by people who want to put something down that is popular with public when they do not know what they are talking about.I don’t know but think it is probably illegal to remove a farm hedge but also farmers in my opinion have been growing more new hedges than those removed and even neat trimmed hedges provide bottom cover for Hedgehogs.
Strange that one cause is where conservationists like garden ponds and hogs that get in there are almost always dead hogs,likewise cattle grids,the obstacles for hogs are endless with worst culprit the 3 wheeled car.
I was intrigued by your opinion on hedge loss/gain and did a very quick bit of “research”. I know Songbird Survival are very keen on claiming that there are plenty of hedgerows. The RSPB write about the relative gains and losses here:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/advice/farmhedges/loss_gain.aspx
Overall they seem to say we have lost a lot of hedges since the middle of the last century. Although these losses have now (since the mid 90s) been halted and may even have been replaced with slight increases in some areas, that is against a backdrop of big losses. I.e. if you lose 50% and then hold steady at 50% or even increase to 55% that isn’t a net gain, but is instead still a sad and significant loss. Furthermore newly planted hedges do not have anything like the same diversity of species and so simply measuring net length of hedgerow only tells part of the story.
I also see a lot of poorly maintained old hawthorn hedges around me which provide no cover at all, having not been laid for many years and grown so thin at the bottom that the farmers must add wire to secure the boundary as a barrier.
So overall I am still inclined to consider habitat loss the primary culprit for hedgehog decline, with badgers a convenient scapegoat for those seeking an excuse for a cull. Haven’t badgers and hedgehogs coexisted for millennia before the advent of modern agriculture?
“Haven’t badgers and hedgehogs coexisted for millennia before the advent of modern agriculture?”
Or hedges.
“the obstacles for hogs are endless with worst culprit the 3 wheeled car”
Dennis, is there something we should know about the drivers of 3 wheeled cars ?
A quick search on google shows there are now only 133 licensed Reliant Robins on the road in UK, probably the most popular three wheeler in UK history (and the only one I can think of) so you would have to be an extraordinarily unlucky hedgehog to be run over by a three-wheeler, unless your suggesting that 3 wheel drivers patrol the roads of the UK on the lookout for hedgehogs ?
http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/reliant_robin#!tax
Triumph and a lesser known Scimitar made three wheelers too. Thinking about it the chance of coming across a hedgehog in the middle of the lane you’re in, in four wheels the ‘hog goes between the two front and two rears, in a three wheeler…..
In Morgan 3-wheeler the rear wheel is for catching hedgehogs missed by the two at the front
🙂 I guess then half tracks and tanks don’t leave evidence behind either….so 4×4 arent the green menance too, they ride over with plenty of clearance, and judging by Ralphs cartoon maybe we missed out mould from cheese being a problem 🙂
Of course those who want to go on the red herring of habitat loss of hedgerows and go back half a century are barking up the wrong tree as the big loss of hogs has happened during a time of hedgerow stability and the reason hedges were laid was before hedge trimmers evolved.It is a myth about laid hedges being fantastic as without tractor mounted trimming these hedges soon grow spindly and you would find it extremely difficult to lay again.Credit where credit due please from these people,go back further still and give farmers the credit for setting almost all the hedges in U K so they have in fact been the big help over time to hogs.
In the paper today talk of a book called”The New Hedgehogs Book”by Prof Pat Morris who it is said with no axes to grind attributes Hedgehogs disappearance on explosion of Badger population and produces science to back it up.
Well said Hugh Webster – probably the most informed comment so far.
As with birds, there is no one simple cause of hedgehog decline. But blaming badgers is similar to calling for a cull of Sparrowhawks because they eat birds.
No doubt at all millions of hogs have been squashed flat [and not just by 3 wheelers!] and certainly in arable areas the almost complete lack of invertebrate life in the fields and scrappy lines of bare twigs that used to be hedges will have seriously suppressed numbers. I’ve seen whole fields gleaming blue from slug pellets here and spraying, well I’m just appalled by it. We do get hedgehogs in our garden – last year one took 4 steps into the road and was flattened.
The problem ‘we’ all have is that we want to control nature – we want what we perceive as the good guys but feel quite content at slaughtering what we think of as the bad guys. No good I’m afraid. In the natural world everything is good – as everything is food for something else.
I’m not quite sure why y’all are getting so fussed up if the excessive number of badgers has led to a hedgehog decline. So what? No-one in this post has suggested a cull of badgers on those grounds. But – we don’t know what has caused the demise of the hedgehog and if it is from bTB I think we should be told. I suspect it is related to a number of factors – blaming badgers because we can’t think of anything else would be following the exclusion principle, which as any fule kno, is not the way to do things and is responsible for any number of dumb causes celebres of our time. Looking into the demise of hedgehog food items on farmed land might be productive. I remember when organomercurial seed treatments were banned around the end of the 70s, but as heavy metals don’t leach appreciably – the mercury is still there a third of a century later. What effect is it still having on soil organisms? I think we should be told that an’ all. If hedgehogs and badgers compete for similar food and it is declining then there is no need to invoke predation as a prime cause of hedgehog decline.
Indeed, a very unreliable contact from Cider Space insists that no badger he has eaten has contained a hedgehog.
Thing is and only one person pointed this out, Badgers,Hedgehogs and ground nesting birds hav e coexisted for ages, even longer then any “good” work by farmers. I personally would like to adopt laws similar to other countries were cats ARE NOT allowed out to roam and destroy anything they come across, any cat found loose without an owner is rounded up taking to the “pen” and locked away until the owner steps forward and pays a hefty fine. If no-one steps forward the cat is destroyed.
Well said Sir, although why not speed up the process and just shoot them on sight?
We dispose of them through our subsidised AD unit. It works rather well.
Well said Filbert,
There is an interesting evidence review by a chap called Marc Baldwin on this site:
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/questions_answers_hedgehogs.html#hedgehog_predator.
Regarding hedgerows, surely there can be no doubt that the hedgerow loss experienced during the ‘locust years’ has contributed to hedgehog decline in the past, but I’m sceptical that this is the main explanation for the recent downward trend of rural hedgehog populations, a downward trend which seems to be mirrored by urban hedgehog populations.
My own observations from the densely hedged Lolium plains where I spend much of my working life, is that hedgerow management has improved greatly in recent years, in fact this is perhaps the one area that has improved on English farmland during the last decade, particularly since 2005 when both ELS was launched and Cross Compliance was introduced. 60% of English farmland is managed under ELS and the bi/triennial hedge trimming options have proved to be by far the most popular management options. ELS has been unsuccessful in most respects but not for hedgerow management, although there is still potential for further improvement.
Under the Cross Compliance (GEAC 14) rules farmers are also required to maintain an uncultivated, unfertilised, herbicide free buffer strip, measuring 2m from the centre of the hedge in all fields 2ha or more in size. Ok not every farmer plays by the rules but the vast majority do as evidenced by the RPA’s XC inspection statistics.
I suspect the reasons behind the hedgehog decline are multifaceted and conservationists need to be led by the evidence, and if that evidence implicates badgers, then to quote Mr Cobb “so what ?”
All hedges have an other side – in many instances this will be in a field and also have a 2m strip, making a linear feature 4m wide at the minimum.
As for facing facts – changes imposed on a dynamic but stable equilibrium will have correlated responses – aka unintended consequences. These should be regarded as inevitable, but uncertain in nature, time and location. That there will be some is entirely predictable. Those who promote and impose change should face up to this and hush their fuss when the consequences emerge in the fullness of time.
This is precisely a parallel to the birds of prey/songbird argument and goes completely against the predator-prey relationships, that anyone with a basic grasp of ecology understands.
As with farmland birds, we should be looking at the lack of hedgerows, the amount of pesticides being used (including garden slug pellets) and, in the case of the hedgehogs in particular, roadkill. There are increasingly more cars on the road annually.
When is this badger-bashing going to end?
Actually car usage and ownership is levelling off, not rising. The only increase has been in rural areas. And that has been in usage not ownership, transport services being cut etc.
So there are more cars being used in rural areas. That’s pretty much my point. What’s your point?
In my travels around the UK since the middle 50s it is clear – to me – that the hedgehog, as evidenced by road-kill, has severely declined. In that time increases are clear in road-kill pheasants and badgers. Wood pigeons, deer and fox – occasionally. It is many years since I have seen a road-killed hedgehog. In fact, I have seen only two hedgehogs in many years – a live one last year in my non-urban garden, and in September a very small dead one crushed into a tractor wheeling on an organic farm in Suffolk.
An assumption of “badger-bashing” appears to be a Pavlovian response to seeing the word “badger”.
Ed, in your original comment you state ” …there are increasingly more cars on the road annually”. In your original comment say more actual VEHICLES increasing year by year and I qoute again “so there are more CARS being used in rural areas”, NO that doesn’t mean an increase in car ownership just an increase in journeys. MY POINT was to indicate you were wrong, car ownership/more cars on the road annually hasn’t increased year by year but has actually in the last five years slowed down. The department of transport has figures showing car ownership has slowed right down, they even call it PEAK TRAFFIC, because despite more and more people passing their driving test they can’t afford the car, the petrol, the insurance and running cost associated with actually owning a car, new or used. If the trends continues it will mean we will see even less cars on the road as people find it impossible to run/own a car, so the say as you did there is an increase in cars annually isn’t true.