A fox and a hedgehog have been captured sharing food on webcams set up
by wildlife
enthusiast Jason Alexander, at his home in Rushmere St Andrew, Suffolk.
"You naturally think the fox will see the hedgehog as prey, so I was
surprised to see them feed side by side," Mr Alexander said.
"I think there have been several of each using the feeding stations.
They
seem to tolerate each other." Mr Alexander, 43, has been adding to his collection of webcams over the past
two years and now has about 30 - monitoring nest boxes along with visitors to
his garden's feeding stations.
He said the hedgehogs feed about 10 times a night, and are most likely
to be
joined by a fox between 1am and 3am. "One of the first things I do each
day is to sit with a cuppa and take a look
at the footage from the night before," Mr Alexander said. Suffolk
Wildlife Trust says that foxes "generally don't pose a threat to
hedgehogs, but aren't completely benign".
Simone Bullion, senior conservation adviser, said: "There are rare
incidents
where foxes can prey on hedgehogs, using learned behavior." She said
some foxes had been known to wait for a hedgehog to unroll from its
defensive ball, before taking a bite at it. "In this individual case,
however, the fox does not appear to view the
hedgehog as prey."
No comments:
Post a Comment