In reply to Hilary Bennett's letter in todays edition of Dorset Echo regarding Badgers eating Hedgehogs ~ the answer is yes, at least a few of them have developed the skill to open the urchin's rolled-up body, but not all Badgers bother if other food is plentiful.

Earthworms make up 50% of the Badger's diet with insects, fruits, cereal and small mammals such as rats, mice, and young rabbits making up much of the remainder, along with many wasp larvae.

Like us, Badgers are omnivorous and therefore devour most things that are edible although much depends on weather conditions, prolonged drought periods are particularly bad news and many cubs born earlier in the year die from starvation during these spells.

Badgers and Hedgehogs have lived side by side as predator and prey on this earth long before man arrived with no ill effect. When I was a boy in the fifties, Hedgehogs were commonplace in the many hedgerows and my farm-bred collie was forever digging the poor things out of their nests, some I'm sad to say, with their new-born kits.

No, it's due to our modern way of life that is causing the sad demise of our prickly friend. Apart from the loss of miles of hedgerows, pastureland is ploughed for arable crops which in turn is treated with chemicals, killing beetles, worms, slugs and other invertebrates which the Hedgehog depends on. More roads, more vehicles, slug pellets, strimmers, tarmacked gardens, the list is endless.

Finally, as long ago as the1500's, a bounty was paid for every Hedgehog killed and churchwarden's records show that thousands were killed annually for decades!

Colin Fountain Moreton Dorset