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.

No camera as yet but a good idea. So it's either a badger, fox, squirrel, magpie, otter, hippo or bison!

Could be over amorous hedgehogs!!! Ours were at it again last night and I'm sure they have tipped over a big pot on my garden whilst romping. After all, it couldn't have been the wind or a cat could it!!

Magpies couldn’t knock over a heavy pot. They are also not awake at night.
A badger is the most likely culprit. Could be foxes though. Are there no other signs, eg footprints, poo ?

Lawn digging and big enough to tip over a heavy pot shouts out as a badger to me. Maybe several badgers.

They are lovely but they are clumsy and phenomenal diggers.

If you leave out some dog food they'll be more likely to leave your lawn and pots alone. You might get to see them too.

Clumsy is probably the wrong word. Unbotherred about collateral damage is probably more accurate!

Glad they've narrowed it down for you, OP. 😂

Could be an elephant although they are surprisingly dainty.

Badgers are 1. Surprisingly hefty and 2. Hang out in gangs. Blame the badgers.

I think a gang of badgers is most likely and also what I'd most like to witness. They're massive I know so they'd definitely be able to wrestle terracotta especially with back up.

Badger gang activity. They don't go out alone and will rampage wildly in search of food - just hope they aren't armed.

It's a kangaroo.

Where I live its wild boar!

I'm surprised you haven't considered this fella ..

We've had pigs, sheep and cows get into our garden and we have several large stone/terracotta pots but the only thing knocked over was a 30cm diameter terracotta finial on a low pedestal (that was one of the cows).

Our pots are between 50 and 100cm diameter though so don't think hedgehogs, badgers etc could tip those over!

Are there bulbs in your pots? Badgers love to eat them. DMIL is the biggest wildlife lover ever, rescues jackdaws with broken wings and has blackbirds come into the kitchen to feed, and she was so conflicted when a badger climbed into the fenced garden and dug up and ate all her bulbs!

We had a new lawn as part of our farden re-furbishment a couple of years ago .
New lawn had to grow and settle in , we were very careful mowing , not walking on it etc.

A year later there was a weird flattened area of grass from the fence to the path. Completely straight and even. About 9" wide. No signs of digging anywhere (the fences were brand new and 4' high)

It was like a huge pipe had been laid on the grass for several days There's nothing underneath this lawn.

I could only guess it was an animal but no idea what type .
No way in . No way out -unless they flew .

Read a report over weekend about a garden in Essex where 8 water buffalo - not belonging to the householders - fell into the swimming pool. Rest assured OP. It wasn't water buffalo in your garden.

Leave a peanut butter sandwich in front of a wildlife camera/cctv. You'll soon know if you've got badgers. (Just pnb & bread, no Lurpak.😂)

I googled this story & there's video of the incident!

I’d say either Rhinos or Zebras. A common problem round here.

Didn’t upload. I blame the monkeys.

Nice place you've got there, @Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight

Foxes live to dig, this one used my window box to bury a bit of rotten chicken from a food waste bin

Do you live in Wimbledon? Is your garden generally untidy? These look harmless, but due to their size, once enraged, are capable of tipping over a big pot. (Although to be fair, they do normally clean up any mess made).

The first one fell but the others jumped in! They very much lived up to their name.

The video is fabulous!