Artificial supplementary food influences hedgehog occupancy and activity patterns more than predator presence or natural food availability

Supplementary feeding for declining hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) populations is popular in Great Britain and has been suggested as an important factor in explaining higher densities in urban areas compared with rural ones. Occupancy modelling was used to test whether spatial variation in supplementary feeding, natural food or predator presence best explained patterns of hedgehog occupancy and activity across a rural urban gradient. Supplementary food had a strong effect on hedgehog occupancy and detection, with all supplementary feeding sites recording hedgehog presence. Sites with supplementary feeding also detected hedgehogs earlier in the evening and had different patterns of diel activity to those sites without. Natural food availability and predators showed a negative relationship with hedgehog occupancy. Natural prey availability and the presence of predators was relatively higher in rural areas and had a negative relationship with hedgehog occupancy. Although the strength of th..., , # Artificial supplementary food influences hedgehog occupancy and activity patterns more than predator presence or natural food availability

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dt](10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dt)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data associated with WLB-2025-01500

All data and code files used for analysis can be found in the following files:

1. \"Hedgehog_SuppFeed_Occu25_FINAL.R\"  which is the R script to run the Occupancy analysis.
2. \"Hedgehog_Covariates25.csv\" which is the spreadsheet containing the covariates used in occupancy analysis. The covariates are as follows:

i) **Site_ID** = Numeric site location identifier.

ii) **Carabid** = Count of individual Carabid beetles trapped in pitfall traps.

iii) **Pitfall_Abund** = Count of pitfall trap abundance of ground living terrestrial invertebrates.

iv) **Pitfall_Rich** = Count of pitfall trap invertebrate family richness.

v) **Pitfall_Shannons** = Pitfall index of Shannon's diversity

vi)...,