Badger deaths and post mortems.

I have checked with Post Mortem Services and have been told that none of the organisations associated with animal post mortems would take a badger for post mortem examination.

Before everything got re-organised and re-legislated badgers COULD be submitted however, now, Health and Safety forbids post mortem examination. The reason isthat it is consideredthat badgers are carriers of TB and therefore that raises a serious health risk to those involved.

For this reason I cannot request post mortems on badgers.

Rather like foxes, the injuries badgers die from after being involved in a car strike would be internal haemorraging, etc. There is a badger recorded as having no signs externally after being attacked by a wolf (not in UK) but during post mortem its internal organs etc were "a mess".

If you find a dead badger with some blood around its mouth/muzzle area that is probably a good sign that it was hit by a car. Badgers like foxes (again) can move away from the incident scene and die in gardens or elsewhere.

Something like clear bite marks etc might indicate badger baiting but the reports of healthy conditioned looking badgers being found dead around Bristol are very likely RTA.

Foxes and badgers both suffer heavily from motorists -often not reporting they hit an animal- and this is why the number killed each year may just be under the 60,000+ noted with fox death "guesstimations".

So if you find a dead badger report it to the locakl authority who remove carcasses free of charge. If you find dead badgers in Bristol please take a photo and send it along with location to me to keep a record.

Thank you