Badger!

[humdrum_hostage]

I am 36 and never seen a live badger in the flesh, only on my trail cam (or dead).

Its 12:30am and I decided before going to bed I would empty the kitchen bin as the missus was moaning it was stinky. As I open the back door there is some animal in distress either in my garden or in the field behind so I get my torch and there is a badger in my garden!

So I thought well what's all the noise???

It has mutilated not one but two hedgehogs in my garden! They have serious wounds and making an awful screaming noise. One has all its entrails hanging out. I didn't want to pick them up as I didn't want to get bitten and I couldnt shoot them with my air rifle as they were both curled up in a ball and I'm not just going to put random pellets into them! So unfirunfortunately I have had to let nature take its course, put up with the screaming for a bit and console the missus who is traumatised.

What a horrific first experience of a badger!

 

[awarner]

That's nature for you, with the lack of rain we have been having its probably making it harder for the badger to find bugs and worms etc but they will eat anything that they can get hold of including ground nesting birds reptiles etc.

 

[Robson Valley]

Predator-prey interactions are normally brutal = get it done, and never pretty.
That's life in the hard lane. Rare chance to see it, sir. Rare chance.

It is late spring. Green-up at last.
Moose cows are calving in the river bottom lowlands.
The black bears and the grizzly bears are just out of hibernation now.
The cougars and the wolf packs are always hungry.

The Lynx, Bobcats, Martins, Fishers, Mink and weasels are doing what they can.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

As horrible as it sounds, I was hoping the badger would come back as I couldn't dispatch the hedgehogs and they were clearly suffering. It did and swiftly put them out of their misery.

I'm have gone out there this morning and there is no sign of anything! No blood, no trampled vegetation, no bodies. If I hadn't had witnessed that last night, I would be non the wiser!

 

[C_Claycomb]

Good point about the lack of rain. Maybe that explains the unusually high number of badgers I am seeing dead on the roads around here. Badgers travelling further afield looking for food.

 

[Robson Valley]

Might the road kill be related to mate-searches?
Very nice tanned hides for bedside rugs = bare feet on cold mornings.

Here, it's the male squirrels running around, looking for mates.
The girls stay up in the trees.

 

[juliojordio1983]

I've witnessed a Hedgehog trying to take a live Wood Pigeon chick that had fallen from it's best in my garden, and I was shocked that the Hedgehog could behave in that way! It had the chick by the back of the neck and was trying to drag it off the lawn into undergrowth. Kind of ironic they can be taken by Badgers the same way.

 

[Janne]

Next time, dispatch the hedgehogs with a spade. If you use the flat side, you can cook them!
They are supposed to be a delicacy.

 

[Robson Valley]

Sort of a flat road-kill looking thing? I've whacked a few grouse with no vehicle damage ( less than 60kph)
but some kind of a garden rat covered with sate' spears?

 

[Janne]

Can be eaten for sure!
Like Armadillos and Muskrats!

It is a certain culture in Europe that considers Hedgehog a delicacy.
I guess you can use the spines as a toothpick to remove lodged strands of meat from between your pearly whites?

Badger was eaten too in the old days. WW2 to be more precise. In UK. Possibly elsewhere too.

 

[Janne]

Choosing between Spam and a Badger I know my preferred choice!

 

[C_Claycomb]

The badgers here are protected, so you can't (legally) go skinning road kill for rugs, much less turn them into a Sunday roast dinner.

The UK is a place where people generally look at one askance when one mentions eating squirrel, so I dread to think what would happen if you announced you had fricassee Mrs. Tiggywinkle or braised Tommy Brock!

I think I am seeing more badgers dead on the roads than in previous years, so either there are suddenly a lot more badgers than last year, or they are out travelling further now than normal. I am seeing more badgers dead than I am rabbits or foxes, in fact, almost as many as those two combined.

 

[jammy_monkey]

Yup, have definitely seen a couple by the roads this year and I rarely seem them round these parts (Norfolk doesn't seem to have a massive badger population).

 

[mikehill]

I've witnessed a Hedgehog trying to take a live Wood Pigeon chick that had fallen from it's best in my garden, and I was shocked that the Hedgehog could behave in that way! It had the chick by the back of the neck and was trying to drag it off the lawn into undergrowth. Kind of ironic they can be taken by Badgers the same way.

Must be a northern hedgehog thing Somewhere I have some footage of a hedgehog chewing on a Goldfinch that was spending the night in the feeding box in my yard. No idea why the finch was in there and never knew hogs ate birds until I checked the CCTV the next morning !

 

[Janne]

Hedgehogs eat carrion, eggs, slugs, other animals if they can catch them like mice, snakes, slowworms....

Similar to what Badgers eat....

 

[Janne]

The badgers here are protected, so you can't (legally) go skinning road kill for rugs, much less turn them into a Sunday roast dinner.

The UK is a place where people generally look at one askance when one mentions eating squirrel, so I dread to think what would happen if you announced you had fricassee Mrs. Tiggywinkle or braised Tommy Brock!

I think I am seeing more badgers dead on the roads than in previous years, so either there are suddenly a lot more badgers than last year, or they are out travelling further now than normal. I am seeing more badgers dead than I am rabbits or foxes, in fact, almost as many as those two combined.

Wonder if the badgers are attracted to roadkill, then they get hit themselves?

I used to use Badger hair when I used to tie fishing flies.
Also used them to craft artificial lures for Pike.
The source was road killed badger. I see no point why you can not use a dead animal?

 

[Robson Valley]

#12 = "they're protected."
Must be much like here (British Columbia) where wildlife is the "property of the Crown" and can't be taken/harvested without a hunting season and a license to hunt that species.
In theory, wildlife collisions producing road kill are similarly still property of the Crown.
Even if the animal is thrashing in agony and you get out of your vehicle and shoot it. I've done that and it rattled me for days after.
Then, you can get busted for discharging a firearm on a highway!
Mind you, some road kill gets punted off into the ditch for the carnivores and scavengers.
Other road kill magically disappears.

 

[Janne]

I did read post #12.
Still would exercise civil obedience in case I would need a part of a dead, protected animal. As it does not hurt anybody, or make the dead animal alive.

Weird that Badgers are protected, considering how many are culled (TB risk) in UK every year.

 

[Barney Rubble]

The protection of badgers exists primarily to prevent the disturbance of their setts and their welfare. This is not because they are considered to be rare (they're not) but to prevent illegal badger baiting and hunting which can involve the digging up and/or use of dogs to enter the setts.

In my opinion Badgers are a joy to capture on camera, they're one of a fairly small group of large(ish) predators that we still have in the UK. It's unfortunate what happened in the back garden but, at the end of the day, that's the harsh reality of the food chain!

 

[Janne]

I used to enjoy watching both badgers and hedgehogs foraging for food when I lived in UK.

I helped the hedgehogs by giving them extra food ( cat food).
lovely animals! But full of fleas, so do not touch them!