Hedgehog Poo

[MJ224]

This at the Hendy Nature Reserve. First time seeing it here...

[Harold Gough]

There should be lot of bits of insect if it is hedgehogs but fox's may have some to. Our local foxes' have lots of fruit stones (plums, etc.).

We don't have hedgehogs because the badgers eat them.

Harold

[Ian]

Made me chuckle. Winnie, next?

Ian

[Joe_T]

Yuck! That looks worse than what the geese leave behind. 😀

[Wildwood]

Being lucky enough to have Hedgehogs regularly visit my garden, I've seen a fair few examples of Hedgehog droppings in my time and they looks nothing like that. They're always thin and highly tapered at each end, maybe about 5-6 cms long (I've never tried measuring them). What you have there is clearly rammed full of seeds so it's obviously not the droppings of an insectivore. You don't provide a reference object for scale but my guess would be Canada Goose.

Many years ago I used to help our County Mammal Group with their mammal surveys. Whilst I have a degree in Zoology, tracks and field signs of our native mammals was far too niche to be on the curriculum. Fortunately the group was led by experts in the subject. As well as being a lovely social day out in the countryside with like-mined people it was a great learning experience and I got to see some mammals that I might never have otherwise seen such as a Dormouse and a Yellow-necked Mouse (those things are feisty!). We also learnt to properly set up a Longsworth trap - the main tool for small mammal surveys, and to distinguish Otter spraint from Mink spraint . If you have an active county mammal group I can highly recommend getting involved.

[MJ224]

Thanks for an informative answer. Very definitely not a Canada Goose, but I refer to this web page for poo ID...

https://practicalhome.uk/identify-animal-poo/

[griffljg]

Does the consistency of the stools tell you anything?

[TravelingChick]

Um...thanks for sharing ?!?

[Ian]

Yuck! That looks worse than what the geese leave behind. 😀

No, surely not, that stuff is really really bad

Ian

[Harold Gough]

Fox.

Harold

[MJ224]

Yes, maybe. The bore is a little large for a small rse....

[blackfox]

When in doubt about the origin of something , nothing beats the taste test 🤢🤢🤢🙀🤯

[MJ224]

And in your experience, Jeff, which tastes the better...

[Harold Gough]

There should be lot of bits of insect if it is hedgehogs but fox's may have some to. Our local foxes' have lots of fruit stones (plums, etc.).

We don't have hedgehogs because the badgers eat them.

Harold

[Geoff]

It wasn't me.....😉

[Wildwood]

We don't have hedgehogs because the badgers eat them.

Harold

Really? Prove it because Science says otherwise.

[Harold Gough]

Really? Prove it because Science says otherwise.

Recorded on video (not mine) in our garden several years ago. The hedgehogs, one at a time, were in a proper "house" prior to release and the badger was filmed breaking in. I did it twice on separate occasions, killing two.

My understanding is that badgers are the only predator of hedghogs but I don't know where that originated.

Harold

[ronidog]

Unfortunately it is true badgers eat hedgehogs.