I was walking the perimeter of LBF and saw a hedgehog on top of a mound of dried grass at the edge of some trees. On closer inspection something seemed not quite right. I touched the spines to see if it would move... No, no movement, so I picked it up to have a closer look; as I turned it in my hand, it quickly became apparent that it was just the skin and spines of the hog, its body had been carefully eaten out from the underside!
I wondered what may have eaten the hedgehog, perhaps a fox had been able to take advantage of a dead or dying hog? After a little bit of research - (posting pictures on a forum) and Googling 'what eats hedgehogs', it seems that Badgers are known to eat hedgehogs in this way, leaving just a 'shell' of spines as evidence. This was somewhat of a surprise to me as I have not seen a badger or badger set anywhere near LBF in the years I have lived here and have been absent participants on the camera trap. I don't know it was a badger for sure, but this seems like the M.O of a striped culprit, but needs more evidence... I will put out the camera trap in the same location with some dog food / biscuits and see if a badger shows up in the wee small hours.
