Food in gardens
Many people support garden mammals, such as hedgehogs, foxes and badgers, by providing extra food for them. However, it is not always known what animals actually end up eating this food or if the animals compete to get access to it. Foxes and hedgehogs have been seen to feed from the same bowl but we have also witnessed a fox nipping a badger's behind to try to keep it from food.
The study
We are interested in studying the interactions between foxes, hedgehogs, badgers, cats and dogs, in the presence or absence of extra food. The project will be focused on interactions between foxes, badgers and hedgehogs, but we are also interested in interactions between the same species, i.e. fox and another fox, and also between pets.
How to help
Please help us to find out how extra food provided in gardens may influence the interactions between garden mammals by sharing with us any interactions you have seen or recorded between the mammals in your garden. You can do this by uploading videos, photos or descriptions of what you have seen and answer a few anonymous questions about if you provide food in your garden or not. This will help us understand how feeding might be affecting interactions between garden mammals.
Whether you provide food in your garden or not, we are keen for us to share the tales from your garden!
This research is led by mammalian biologist Dr Dawn Scott. Find out more about her research into monitoring urban wildlife in the UK.