Day 122 - Brock On

badger pride

Well, we didn't manage a repeat performance of the Fantastic Mr Fox, but we did get a bit of badgery action.

We are a little concerned that there only seem to be 2 badgers up there...and also aware that there have been many local badger deaths on the road lately.  At this time of year (or over the last couple of months), last years young males are turned out of their home sett, and set off across the countryside in search of females and new territory.  

Unfortunately, this takes them across roads, and being young enough to have pretty much no road sense whatsoever, many lose their lives.  The dead badger by the roadside is becoming ubiquitous, sadly. 

Anyway we got a couple of nice clips, but it would be good to get a bit closer to the action!

We've now reset the camera to take photo's (rather than video), and moved it onto a path that they clearly use...we might get some good face-on pics - especially as we think that badger, fox and deer all use this path.

Here's a clip of a bit of industrious hole digging.




He seems enthusiastic enough, at least...and yes, I'm sure - he is excavating, not whatever it was you thought he was doing!

And here's the other short clip of a slightly podgy badger, bimbling on by...



It saddens me to think that we have a government in power who believes that wholesale slaughter of a significant species is a reasonable solution to our failure to manage our domestic livestock sensibly.   

Even putting aside for a moment the sound scientific arguments opposing a cull of these creatures in order to (try to) control TB amongst cattle, surely wholesale slaughter of any species is morally suspect (other than in the direst of circumstance)?  Not to mention rash and irrational - we risk unbalancing the very ecosystems we rely on, with virtually no understanding of the consequences of our actions. 

And yet the government tries to forge ahead with its selfish, destructive plans...it's only badgers, isn't it?

Grrrrrrrrr

I could go on...all sorts of possible tangents present themselves from here...but I'll resist...

You're welcome...

:-/