Badger predation of hedgehogs is a natural interaction with welfare implications for both species, generating debate about the relationship between badger and hedgehog population management.
The badger-hedgehog interaction welfare question exemplifies the difficulty of applying simple welfare principles to natural predator-prey relationships between two protected species. Individual hedgehogs killed by badgers experience acute welfare harm, but this must be understood within the ecological context of a natural predator-prey relationship that has existed for millennia. The welfare concern arises primarily when human activities have altered the ecological balance: in areas where habitat loss has reduced hedgehog populations to low densities, additional predation pressure from badgers can be a significant population-level welfare concern. The debate about whether badger management is appropriate in areas where hedgehog populations are low is complicated by the bovine TB controversy - proposals to control badgers for hedgehog welfare benefit are inevitably tangled with the contentious issue of badger culling for cattle disease management. The most welfare-coherent approach focuses on habitat management: creating habitat diversity that provides hedgehogs with refugia and food sources while accommodating natural badger populations, rather than managing either species lethally.