"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
...

On the topic of hedgehogs, I found I think three dead hedgehogs at
different times and in different parts of the garden last season with no
obvious signs as to why they had died. I could only think perhaps that
the neighbouring farmer had put down rat poison which the hedgehogs had
taken in. I don't know whether this can be a significant cause of
hedgehog deaths. Or reading the Wildlife Trust page you suggested I
suppose pesticide is another dismaying possibility.

Janet G

One feature of hedgehogs is that they really are the end of
their own particular food chain. While many of the things they
eat, beetles, caterpillars, earthworms, slugs and snails
are the sorts of things humans are already trying to
poison. Either deliberately or maybe through not being able to
be sufficiently selective. So maybe these hedgehogs in their
turn, came across dead slugs or beetles etc. and rather than
posting their experiences on UseNet as you did, they eat them
instead, with the resulting dire consequences.

While going in the other direction, given that there are no
carrion in the UK - vultures etc. not so far as I know at least -
coupled with the hedgehog's spiny coat, may mean that their
remains may sit around on the surface for a relatively long
time. The website gives them an average lifespan in the wild
of just two years. And so your finds may be unexceptional.
Just that they happened to die there, than somewhere else.
It also suggests that there may have been a growth in
the local population, maybe.

While given that they had no predators at all until the arrival
of the motor car and the use of pesticides, the only limit to their
reproduction - given their ability to hibernate presumably must
have been scarcity of food. So that prior to the arrival of the
motor car and pesticides, there were presumably many more hedgehogs
around than there are today - but correspondingly far fewer slugs
and snails.


michael adams

....

http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/facts/hedge.htm