Hedgehog & Badger

David Heath argues the badger cull with Brian, however, with no scientific evidence to argue,

no ethics to argue and no economic justification to argue he randomly says "hedgehogs are declining because of badgers". It is an odd argument if true, but it simply isn't true. 

I don't think he knows what badgers eat.

For those following this debate it is no surprise he can't read the facts yet again - I wonder if he should go to Specsavers?

He also doesn't know what an ecosystem is or what a badger eats, does he know they live underground? LISTEN HERE 

FACT - The cull is unscientific, unethical, uneconomical and won't work and it won't save hedgehogs Mr Heath. 

Foxes eat ducks, but we still have ducks. Nature thrives in a natural balance -it is us that puts species into decline.


Tell them how you feel NOW before it's too late - 

if you have already written write again - NOW! 

SOME FACTS FROM PTES and BHPS that Mr Heath may want to read in relation to Hedgehogs and Badgers.

PTES and BHPS position statement on the relationship between hedgehogs and badgers:

Hedgehogs are preyed upon by badgers and badgers compete with hedgehogs for food according to research at the University of Oxford and elsewhere. The two species have coexisted in Britain for several thousand years, but national badger surveys in the 1980s and 90s conducted by the University of Bristol showed then that the badger population had increased significantly in that period. Whilst it is likely that where badger numbers are high the number of hedgehogs will be low there is no evidence that badgers are the single most important factor affecting hedgehogs today. Hedgehogs rarely encounter badgers in urban areas, but they are declining just as severely in these places as they are in the wider countryside. Moreover, the rate of this decline is not related to the presence of badgers at particular urban sites. In rural areas, hedgehogs are declining severely even in parts of the country with low badger densities (e.g. East Anglia). It is clear that several interacting pressures are at work. Bolstering hedgehog populations would be better achieved by increasing and improving habitat, for example: restoring hedgerows to improve shelter and nesting opportunities; managing field margins and grasslands in ways that encourage abundant and diverse invertebrate prey.

Current discussions about whether or not to cull badgers are a proposed response to the spread of bovine TB and are not related to hedgehog numbers or conservation.

March 2013


Fay Vass, of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said badgers were only part of the problem. 'The main reason numbers are falling is the loss of habitats and the fragmentation of their habitat, she said.