"PANIC!" it's what they always tell you to do if you see a hedgehog out in daylight. Let's set the record straight on this and a myth other dogma myths.
After decades of watching wildlife I can tell you this; the "experts" very often get it wrong. Even in 2025 I am reading the "experts" stating that "we have no idea how foxes interact with badgers should they encounter each other during the night. Generally, unless there are badger/fox cubs around they tend to just ignore each other. Although some badgers tend to "nip the tail" of a fox to get it to move from any food put out you will find that is a mutual practice.
Conflict between the species is rare and, if the experts actually did some historical research rather than crib from each other they would know that before the mass and unscientific slaughter of badgers some ancient setts were huge. I am aware of two very large old setts where people have watched badgers and foxes sharing the large sett -it is assumed the foxes live in a disused part of the sett but no one is disturbing this balance between species.
Badgers and foxes are seen on photographs and in video clips eating together quite happily even though I would always suggest two feeding points are best for when food is scarce or a mother needs to feed her young -food conflict could be a problem.
"Badgers kill hedgehogs" is another one. Well, a very hungry badger in the countryside certainly might but with over 300,000 already killed they are few and far between in the countryside. Hedgehog rescuers will not release a hog in an area with badgers -which is a good enough precaution. The claim that badgers are responsible for the decline in hedgehogs is an outright lie.
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What would happen if a fox and badger met after dark? (c)2025 respective copyright holder
It is the "scapegoat" response because it is easier to blame another animal as with red squirrel decline. By the 1860s they had to import red squirrels from Europe to keep squirrel shooting going and when that generation died off -import more. Trap, shoot, poison and snaring but, today, the dogma naturalists will insist that the grey squirrel is responsible.
In recent years "Foxes are causing a decline in the hedgehog population!" Again, another scapegoat. People are still using pesticides and even slug pellets that are illegal and laying down off the shelf rat and mouse poison which hogs eat. People are still killing hedgehogs with cars, garden fires (despite decades of warnings to check bonfires before setting light to them. In fact, the number of ways humans are killing hedgehogs when they could avoids doing so is incredible.
I should point out that I have personally observed on several occasions, an adult hedgehog sat in a food dish while two adult foxes could only sit back and wait for it to move on -one tried to get the food was bitten! My cross greyhound was also saved one night from a boar hedgehog that headed straight for its legs. I also have a clip in which a hedgehog chased a fox along a path and away from food: it took me five viewings before I could believe what I saw!
Generally, hedgehogs and foxes ignore each other and will even eat from the same dish and one hedgehog even appeared to have an accompanying fox with it each night.
But, no, "it's the badgers" or "It's the foxes". In the last year we have seen press and media reports of "foxes chewing through brake cables" and the radio presenter Paul Gambaccini even declaring that foxes had licked a neighbour's car tyres bald! It's almost as though idiocy is spreading. Let us see what Googles AI Overview tells us:
"While some reports suggest a link between soy-based wire insulation in cars and rodents (like foxes) chewing on brake cables, it's not a universally accepted fact. Car manufacturers have increasingly used soy-based coatings on wiring for environmental reasons, but whether this directly attracts rodents is debated. Rodents are known to chew on wires for various reasons, including keeping their teeth trimmed, and this behavior is not solely attributed to soy-based materials"
Well, that restores my faith in AI!! Firstly, foxes are members of the Vulpes family and canids and they are not in any way members of the Rodentia family. "Rodents (like foxes)" is so dumb a statement. Anyway, first off the amount of wear a car tyre takes before it is "bald" is high. Imagine a fox, an animal the size of a domestic cat, sitting there and continuously licking one single tyre until it is worn out. Maybe it has a group of friends that join it is group licking? All four car tyre worn down -there must have been hundreds of foxes outside the house every night licking away and yet not one photograph of this historical mass licking. I wonder -a stab in the dark here - but could the car owner just have been caught out trying to skip out of paying for new tyres?
Rats chew. They chew at an incredible rate and through most anything. So what about this disputed soy theory?
Foxes are the best rodent control and there is no poison or destruction of the environment involved. (c)2025 respective copyright owner
Mr A was having his car brake cables chewed through so often it cost him in total over £2000 and it was suggested that the local foxes, of which there were quite a few seen during the evening, were to blame. Mr A, however, loved the foxes and even put a bit of food out for them. He was asked whether he had seen any rats and his response was that he had. I was asked about this and suggested that he get a peppermint spray and use it under his car. The problem with chewed brakes stopped.
From field testing over a number of years I can confirm that rats and mice hate peppermint (you can buy sprays and blocks online these days) but it has absolutely no effect on foxes even at points where a lot of peppermint has been sprayed. On the other hand foxes love rats. They are number 1 on the urban fox menu and they can cut a rat population right down. Now, rats attracted to soy in cables under the car and moving about an area will attract their main predator -the fox. A lot of rats equals local foxes popping up for take-away rat. However, being larger than a rat the fox is seen going under the car or around it and...voila! The fox is chewing through the brake cables or so people think.
A small car dealer reported brakes on cars being chewed through and, let's be honest here, you do not want to sell a car or allow one to be test driven and hear anything but "Smooth little ride" Screams and "THE BRAKES WON'T WORK!!" is an indicator that a sale might not go through.
The dealer, working late, saw two foxes go under cars. That was it -he was going to call in pest controllers (though if you get rid of foxes in an area that area is soon taken over by other foxes). He was looking for the cheapest company late one night and heard a loud squeak. He "sneaked a peek" outside and saw a fox run past with a rat in its mouth. While trying to sleep in the site office he heard more noise.
Eventually he checked CCTV and saw a fox (or maybe two as he could not tell if it was a different fox or not) catching rats. Talking to an insurance man the next day it was suggested that he use peppermint oil in a spray bottle and put it around and under cars. He moaned about the cost but purchased a peppermint spray bottle. He continued to see one (or more) fox hunting rats but away from the cars and the damage stopped.
Observation and trials seem to suggest that the reason car cables are chewed through may well be down to rats. The idea that foxes are also getting into the engines of cars and damaging them is so ridiculous that whoever suggests that needs to be made to wear a sign for a week that declares them to be "Dumb Ass Number 1". What is small enough to climb up car wheels (in between mass lickings by foxes) and get into car engines? Rats.
Another semi myth is that if you see an hedgehog out during the day it may well be seriously ill. I have seen and recorded hedgehogs out during the day and night going through the whole mating ritual. I have seen them foraging under bushes during daylight but avoiding direct heat/sunlight. A few years back I went into the back garden and found a young hedgehog that had obviously come out of hibernation. It was dry and sunny so the first thing I did was rush inside and get some food for it and it ate a lot! Water is always available from a couple of sources front and back of the property.
Yesterday evening at about 18.30 hrs I went outside and there was one of the current resident hedgehogs sniffing the ground where I usually put food. So I put the food down and it went straight in and got its fill and after a good gulping of water. Like most wildlife, if an animal feels safe in a territory then it is more open to moving about when it should not (according to experts) be.
It is always important to see how a hog is behaving and if it is just lying in the same spot and unwilling to move or is trembling then that is reason for concern and a rescue or local hedgehog group should be contacted.
PLEASE NEVER EVER PUT OUT MILK OR BREAD FOR A HEDGEHOG AS THE MILK ALONE WILL KILL IT.
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