What animal is tipping over heavy plant pots?

[NashvilleQueen]

There's been some disruption in the garden overnight with the soil disturbed in some pots, damage to the surface of the lawn etc which we get from time to time but today two large pots have pulled onto their side and dug through.

Is this a badger or could it be anything else? I'm struggling to see what else could be strong enough.

Could it be a hippopotamus? Where do you live?

I would think it is most likely badgers. Or a hippopotamus..

Badgers. You would know if it were hippopotamus, from the footprints.

Magpies knock surprisingly heavy things over just for mischief.

How big are the pots?

We have badgers and foxes in our garden. They never show any interest in the millions of pots we have. They could knock over medium pots but not bigger ones. Badgers are more likely to go up on their hind legs to dig through a pot than knock it over.

I'd completely forgotten about our garden hippopotamus. She's obviously at it again.

Northern England. Large terracotta pots. Very interesting about magpies as there have been loads on the lawn in the past week or so and the lawn damage is birds I think. Would they be doing that at night?

Our badgers are rather clumsy so it would't surprise me if they have been knocking pots over. Lawn damage is also a possibility if you don't feed them to encourage them to stay away from certain areas.

Badgers made a right mess of my friends lawn.

Foxes bury carrion, our pits in our old house had all kinds of corpses in them

Badgers certainly dig in lawns, looking for worms, so the lawn damage is probably them. We have had squirrels digging in pots, but if the damage is happening at night, I'd blame (strong) badgers for it all.

Is there any way a person could have got in to tip the pots over?

Badgers.

Hippos are also kind-of nocturnal though, so don't rule it out.

We had a problem with foxes pooing in our garden, they knocked over a very heavy pot with a small tree in.

@piedbeauty I did wonder about vandalism but there's a gate and with the other damage it just feels like it's a creature of some description. There's also damage to the bird feeder with claw marks etc so it sound like something has gone insane in the night.

A pyramid of hedgehogs?

Badgers, they're machines.

Oh god it's not those Bison is it?!

I would guess badgers. I can hear them sometimes heavy breathing in the front garden through the double glazing. I have gone to check upstairs sometimes to see where the noise is coming from they are that loud. They are surprisingly strong and clever sometimes. They dug under a neighbours fence he buried two foot to keep them out

Sounds like it could be squirrels to me I had a nightmare with them last year, got myself a cat this year and they seem to be staying away!! A few of the neighbours were leaving them monkey nuts and they were burying them in all my pots with flowers and all the patio would be covered in soil every morning!!

We have to lave a shed door open because our visiting badgers nearly ripped the door off to get to the metal bins with chicken feed and wild bird food. Put up a trail camera to find out what was doing it. We now leave the door open because replacing the feed is cheaper than replacing the shed.

Badgers or wild boar.

@NashvilleQueen - do you have a movement-activated wildlife camera? You can get them quite cheaply on Amazon. I'd put one out, then you will know what's going on! We see all sorts on ours.

Foxes. They’re dicks, I left some leftover rice out for birds and squirrels and the foxes have done a big poo on it.

Do your kids play Pokémon? I think that a Charizard would make light work of a terracotta pot.

It'll be the bison, for sure.

Could it be an otter? There was one in my town last summer and it caused chaos. Mostly people lost fish in ponds - but also pots were being knocked over etc. Surprisingly bigger pots too.

But agree - it's probably more likely to be a Hippo ;)

Sounds like foxes to me.