help please!

LOTTOWINNER

Hi there,
Looking for help identifying an animal from a burrow, I live in mid-Louth, the burrow is at the base of a hedge, about 5 cm in diameter.

Day Lewin

Um, sorry about this....I'm guessing rat.
Rabbits tend to form a complex of burrows, badgers use a sett which has several entrances in woodland, foxes mainly use bigger holes made by others!
Rats are pretty common, people just don't like to be reminded of them.
Consider the possibility of a large bees nest....investigate with caution!

LOTTOWINNER

Thanks for the reply, a rat was my first thought, and I have seen the occastional rat in the vicinity, it's just that the entrance is quite large, I thought a rat burrow would be smaller.
If it isn't a rat, is it possible that it's a hedgehog?

Fuzzy Clam

Thats an interesting pic.

I came across a similar sized burrow at the back of my garden a couple of weeks ago. There were wasps continually going in and out of it.
There was a slightly larger burrow in a field behind me which, on investigation, seemed to be a bumble bees nest.

Now how wasps or bees can burrow beats me.

Kaldorn

hedgehogs dont burrow

Day Lewin

No. hedgehogs don't actally dig from a cold start. But all animals, like humans, are willing to save a few hours' work by using someone else's.
So a rat burrow will be slightly enlarged when another new rat moves in: a hedgehog may use a hole, again enlarging it slightly, to shelter in. And those wasps and bees just start with any little crevice - often a MOUSE hole - and gradually extend it as the colony grows. It may lie empty over winter, or be used by rats, then next spring more bees or wasps expand it firther...
Still think your burrow in the pic WAS a rat...
P S In my experience, rats are among the least shy of burrowers. Even mice will generally choose somewhere off the beaten track, under a tree root or rock or with a bit of camouflage...This one out in the open is very rattish, sometimes they are plumb square in the middle of a lawn, highly visible....they're afraid of nothing!

LOTTOWINNER

Thanks for all the replies, as Katemarch says it probably is a rat or rats, unlike some people I have no real animosity towards rats, although the cats that visit my garden may not have the same opinion.