Confusing Badgers

As my regular reader will already know, I have been spending a large part of this year watching the local badger population. Part of the reason why I wanted to do this was that the government were seriously considering a cull of Badgers as a way of controlling TB in cattle. Partly because it was seen as political suicide the decision was taken not to carry out a cull. Locally, TB is not a major problem, but it does exist and there are outbreaks from time to time.

Therefore, I was perplexed by the recent discovery that new animals were moving into the local area. While some young male Badgers will be driven out from a sett by the Dominant male, it is rare to find that two new young males can set up in a new territory in the way that they have. Also as Badgers live in extended family groups, there will be times when individuals will relocate to satellite setts.

So to get as clear a picture of what is actually going on I have been going out looking at the various setts to see if I could work out what animal is using what sett. Unlike my normal method of observation where I try to get a snap shot of what's going on, this time I went to spend time at each sett to see what was going on and more importantly if I could determine what individuals were residing at each location. I did start out by taking the video camera with me, as I thought that the IR vision it gave me would be helpful but it ended up being an encumbrance. At one location while laying in the bracken near the path, I had the problems of dogs suddenly discovering me while being walked by their owners. One refused to walk past me and the owner said your supposed to protect me not the other way round. I discovered that there were no badgers at that sett and at another. Two setts abandoned?

Now the problem is that I have heard a rumour that one farm has decided to deal with “Their Badger Problem”, what that means or where the farm is I don't know. Nor do I know if its true. However, something is disturbing the Badgers.

If it is that a farmer in the wider surrounding area has done that I could explain where the two new males came from. Also, if that sett is perceived by the badgers to be empty then my local Badgers could have relocated to that sett. It shows the futility of getting rid of badgers in one sett if that is what has happened. I am jumping to no conclusions here though, as there are two other factors that I need to consider too. The first is that in my local wood felling and thinning work is being carried out. This could have caused the badgers to move to avoid this disturbance. Also as the children are on the summer break it is possible that they are inadvertently disrupting the badgers normal routines and the badgers are just keeping away from human activity.

At the main Sett I watch everything seems normal apart from the fact that they are more cautious of humans and our scent. I am not worried by their apparent absence just confused.