Henhouse murder mystery: the hedgehog did it

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

FOWL PLAY: Former detective Frank Dowle, of Weedons, holds a hen that he pulled from the clutches of a murderous hedgehog.

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The same week Frank Dowle's fowls were stolen, the hedgehog had his throat cut. Drawing on his old skills, former police detective Frank Dowle stopped a murderous hedgehog from claiming a second victim from his chicken coop on Saturday.

The mystery began on Friday when the Dowle family found one of its six shaver hens dead on the floor of its Weedons chicken coop.

The immediate suspect was a ferret or similar animal but a post-mortem revealed a lack of trauma around the neck which Dowle thought would be indicative of a predator.

Dowle said he assumed the hen had died of natural causes and disregarded the fowl-play option.

The next night "a commotion in the hen house" woke Dowle.

"I grabbed a torch and ran out to see what was going on. As soon as I went into the run area I noticed a hen in the far corner. At first I thought it was dead, but then noticed movement next to it. I went for a closer look to discover a hedgehog had one leg of the hen in a firm grip. The hen was not dead and was trying desperately to get away. Clearly the hedgehog had captured the hen inside the hen house and dragged it for about four metres."

Dowle said the hedgehog "did not surrender his prey easily, and I had a bit of a tussle with him" before he killed the intruder.

He confirmed the bite marks on the rescued hen's legs were the same as those on the leg of the murdered chook.

The Press offered Dowle the services of Arthur, the belligerent rooster exiled from Orana Park for attacking children, to guard the roost. Dowle declined, citing the safety of his young children.

Dowle said he had never heard of a hedgehog attacking mature birds, but Landcare Research hedgehog researcher Dr Chris Jones said there had been reports from England of hedgehogs attacking adult birds.

An attack on a mature bird was "unusual", but "not inconceivable".

Death by hedgehog was also "not a nice way to go" as hedgehogs lacked "killing teeth".

Hedgehogs were insectivores with broad flat teeth for crunching up insects so when they killed larger creatures they "just bite and hang on till it dies", he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News