PLEASE THINK and DON'T!

 I know it never sinks in and people are still going to do this but we've had a fox die because one of these deflated balloons fell into woods. Booze and "**** you!" attitudes never change.

The Mystery of the Mystery of the the Strange Badger Deaths

  I think I may have had a brain-glitch with that title. In case you don't know what a badger (Mele meles) looks like...

Anyway, silly things happen when you are a naturalist and this was one of them -an old post but worth reposting.

Photo Chris Crafter

Back in February, 2009, Jon Downes of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ), sent me this message (I believe also posted on the CFZ web page):

"In past week we've had three badger kills in Glos which people cannot explain -they look like they've been precisely sheared in half and just fallen from the sky- no tracks, no blood, and no sign of the other half.  Those who've seen them feel cat is a possibility perhaps, and so too is human, but it's a mystery, even for the county badger specialist. I'm awaiting a pic from one of the locations."

 I believe that this was sent to me since a "cat" was felt to be a possibility.  By "cat", Downes meant a "non native cat" -puma or leopard.  

Firstly, I was stunned that this was even suggested because although there are cases where a large "non native cat" has decapitated a lamb with its bite a badger is something totally different. No normal wild living puma or leopard is going to take on a badger and the strength it has behind its claws -not in an area where easy prey such as rabbits, wild fowl or deer -particularly small muntjac deer (Muntiacus)- abound in numbers.

The idea of a large cat cutting a badger in half was just not feasible.

Human...possible since there are some very nasty types roaming around at night illegally hunting, however, the photographs would tell a story.

In the meantime, I contacted Gloucestershire Police force wildlife crimes officer who simply responded: "What? Where? When? Never heard of this!"

I then contacted Mr Keith Hutchin of the Gloucesterhire Badger Trust who had no idea what I was talking about.  He did, however, suggest that I contact Mr Tony Dean of the Gloucestershire Badger Group who would be the "local expert" and might have information. And so I wrote to Mr Dean.

Mr Dean telephoned me and we talked for around 25 minutes.  He told me that he had been observing badgers in the area for over 30 years which meant that he was the "go to man" if these incidents had taken place. 

Mr Dean had not seen any badger cut in half and had only heard of the alleged find from "a big cat fanatic" (name given) who had told him that a "cat" was responsible.  A decomposing badger (cause of death could have been illness or road traffic accident but it was too far gone to tell).

No "kills" or even a single mystery kill. As for part of an animal being dropped "from a great height"...that part of the tory smelt as bad as the decomposing badger would have.

The story was false from start to finish and when I asked the CFZ whether they had received the promised photographs there was silence.

I mention this since, yesterday, someone asked whether I had looked into the "mystery badger deaths" in Gloucestershire in 2009 as some sources said up to six were killed then it all stopped.

People involved in badger groups or badger watches in the UK are notorious for one thing: they will not disclose where badger setts are or precise numbers. Not only is this to protect badger from the vile Department of Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) culls but also illegal badger baiting -and, yes, that does till go on. I support badger watchers silence 100%.

One thing that you can be sure of is this; had one or six badgers all been mysteriously chopped in half they would know about it as would police wildlife officers.

Faked story

Naturalists In Bristol -WHERE?

 

I never thought that I would write that I was ashamed to be a naturalist from Bristol. No, I have done nothing wrong but it seems I am the only actual real naturalist in the City and County (local "personalities" making videos in the hope of someone from TV seeing them I do not count).

Over five years ago I noted the number of foxes being reported as possibly poisoned. Reactions from the Bristol wildlife groups -zero.  I tried to get support to push for foxes to be submitted for post mortems to identify the causes of death and the resulting support was...zero. It took me more than a year arguing, being nice and pulling a few strings and working every day into the early hours but I got foxes approved for PM study. This I announced on groups and, again, the response was zero. 

In fact the biggest mistake I made was asking on those groups whether someone could check on dead foxes as they were reported -one fox after another vanished and it took a month before it was found out that taxidermists on the groups were grabbing the dead foxes. They were told these were animals possible poisoned and so wildlife crimes evidence and yet they went out there and nabbed them to stuff and sell. Even a couple of badgers listed as "possible suspicious deaths" were nabbed by taxidermists.  Showing commitment to turning a blind eye to wildlife crime in order to make a profit.

The Bristol Fox Deaths Project is groundbreaking in that nowhere else in the country are foxes being submitted for PM examination and we were finding things we were not expecting -even the pathologist was surprised. When I reported back on this, again, a couple "Likes" but zero interest. Bristol is known for its foxes and here we are putting fox study back on the map and...no one in wildlife groups cared. In fact, dead fox and badger reports have 95% come via Lost and Found pet groups which should really make any group claiming to be wildlife orientated ashamed.

I reported on the 2022 and 2023 Bristol Fox and Bristol Badger Deaths Registers and...no interest.Of course drinks evenings and pretty butterfly and birds over-ride those nasty mammals.   

With the number of animals killed on certain blackspots I asked for support to push for over or under road wildlife passes. A couple "Likes" and that was it and so, after months, Bristol City Council could dismiss the need for them. The wildlife deaths on those black spots continue.

As a matter for general discussion I looked at wildlife injuries and the fact that Bristol had no wildlife care centre but I noted that we needed one. On one group that got a "Good idea" and two "Likes" but then the post was removed for "campaigning" -no money was asked for and no campaign announced; wildlife health and conservation was one of the group's stated purposes but that seems to have only been for show.

To get suitable (we have criteria) foxes checked in situ and if suitable picked up and stored before transporting to the pathology centre I asked (repeatedly) for volunteers. Several responses about why they could not and that was it. Did anyone have a place they could cold store a dead fox until it could be submitted? One "maybe" and that soon died a death. We have lost at least 6 foxes to this groundbreaking work because any wildlife project needs volunteers and there are none. 

Are there not many people on Bristol wildlife groups? Let's take the following as examples:

Bristol Naturalist Society                         1.2k

Bristol Nature Network                            4.5k

Bristol and Surrounding Area Wildlife    454

Magpie Bottom Nature Reserve              1.4k

Friends of Troopers Hill                          2.8k

BS5 Wildlife                                            910

BS3 Wildlife                                            2.2k

BS9 Wildlife                                            214

BS34 Wildlife                                          418

BS4                                                          1.2k

BS7 Wildlife                                            132

BS1 and 2 Wildlife                                   50

There are some smaller ones but the total above comes to 15,478 and there are not even two volunteers with transport who can check on dead foxes, badgers and otters (with foxes and otters obviously pick them up for PM study)?  Do you know who the "top contributor" is on most of the above groups with lots of Face Book points (whatever they are)? Me.

Wildlife work is not about guided walks to look at trees or even count butterflies in your garden. You cannot exclude the larger mammals because of personal prejudices or sheer ignorance -some reactions to muntjac deer are almost half-witted. Foxes and badgers we know are heading for a very steep population decline and by the 2030s could be gone. Otters need conserving as best we can yet wildlife groups in Bristol show no interest and, yes, there will be a few angry comments from these but everything I have written about here is recorded on those groups and in posts. Badgers and foxes are not just there for the odd social media photo opportunity.

If you claim to be naturalists then you cannot sit back and do nothing. Watching You Tube videos or TV wildlife shows is NOT being a naturalist. There must be some other naturalists out there not afraid of the rain or cold weather and willing to actually keep things like the Fox Deaths Study going?

As it stands foxes and otters can no longer be collected and submitted for study. No volunteers So when that final post mortem report reaches me the project I have put so much into will end. It should not but it will -I am just one person.  At the same time I will be leaving all of the Bristol wildlife groups and solely concentrating on my canid and felid research work and my Ashton Vale and Bristol Wildlife group on Face Book and the blog. 

As no body or group has offered assistance in over five years the results of the various projects will remain private and distributed only amongst a few involved in research (which excludes Bristol).  I have tried, tried and tried again over five years and I am not bitter. I am totally frustrated with the pretence of people having an interest in the ecosystem and wildlife while sat on their asses and removing posts that they do not like but fall within their group's public statement of intent.

Lack of interest in real wildlife work wins.

See -I Do NOT Make It Up

 

 People seriously think I make stuff up so...

WWF UK:

"30 million birds have vanished from our skies in the last 50 years, 97% of our wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930's, and a quarter of all our mammals are at risk of extinction. We've lost so much, we're now in the bottom 10% of countries globally in terms of nature we have left."

See? I actually do not make all of this up.

Please Sign The Petition

 

Strengthen the Hunting Act to prevent Foxhunters riding out with more than 2 hounds

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/727/985/794/strengthen-the-hunting-act-to-prevent-foxhunters-riding-out-with-more-than-2-hounds/?taf_id=68303366&cid=fb_na&fbclid=IwAR12x93CxTEYBdznFNWRKWbExt6DZJ2q1CzADRUyDohpd-gr5nKAZmp0vEY_aem_AaitdsJIjtw5PTU7HycATcTKn3ZW_4JnmpYRksPFYvuuIMZjtp12-cEHv4Q5IlD7dkn529ICIPIt0ePK4xfqQaCr

Too Late Now: Badger Extinction By the 2030s

 

The Badger Trust posted this and it is well worth visiting the site for full details. I will comment here with what I wrote in a previous post

https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2024/04/worrying-conversations.html:

"I stated in a previous post that I believed the actual number of badgers culled in the UK totalled over 300,000. 

"I have been asking and checking various sources and it appears that 250,000 is continually offered as a total number as it is "more acceptable" to the public. There is a lot of playing fast and loose with official bodies who try to deceptively not respond when responding to questions. I really -really- do not want to but have to accept that the number of badgers culled may reach 400,000 in number. "

Looking over the information I have repeatedly decided that the 400,000 figure cannot be accepted for good reasons but the 300,000 figure does make sense and I have predicted over the last few years (yes, making me that "mad man who goes on about extinction") that the fox population is in a critical state and that the badgers were in a similar state and -it is all on posts you can check out- I have stated that by the 2030s we will have hit an extinction event. The rare urban badgers (so long as they are left alone and survive the cars) will be all we have left. 

I was told -I believe that it was also reported elsewhere- that like foxes it was becoming difficult (the word "impossible" was used) to find badgers and some of the cullers were "officially unofficially expanding cull areas".  Dead badgers are worth money but now we have come to the point that badgers are extinct in certain  areas and there should be some anxious farmers around as continued bTB is a sign of bad animal husbandry.

I am afraid that, after decades of looking at species (UK and elsewhere) extinctions we have reached that point and there will be no stop to the cull because of crooked politics and corruption.  

The UK appears to be a country dedicated to wiping out wildlife and destroying the environment for politics and money. 

https://www.badgertrust.org.uk/post/the-slaughter-and-misinformation-behind-it-continues-over-230-000-badgers-killed?fbclid=IwAR0FlKajQ_NsnxEfiBuYsVFgBuxNdAPVS3oHDWuww9xLqzHbVo5D34bFTfQ_aem_AZpkYeg1fv7DdZ-zx5kHj0ZYTDzVDgDV5onSaTAtJf4SVS2KqVE2NHEgAbPdxTfHdAt0eseJdtpY2w6MFAQ0q6aG

The slaughter and misinformation behind it continues – over 230,000 badgers killed

In some areas of England, the government can’t find any more badgers to kill.

Government figures released today show that they killed 19,570 more badgers in 2023 as part of the government-led cull. This figure takes the total number of protected badgers killed since 2012 under the policy to 230,125.   

In many areas, particularly in heavily culled parts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, shooters found it hard to reach anywhere near their minimum kill targets – they simply didn't find the badgers.  This chilling reality of the effect of mass badger killing underlines what was submitted to the Bern Convention—that we are in danger of local extinction in England’s cull areas, and badger populations are not recovering. 

The evidence keeps pointing to cattle measures being the answer—the government has never shown that just shooting badgers cuts bovine tuberculosis (bTB), which the authors of Defra’s own studies repeatedly make clear.

What evidence does Defra have of a causal link between culling badgers and reducing bTB in cattle? Badger culling has always taken place alongside more effective on-farm cattle measures, such as restricting cattle movements, improving biosecurity, and better cattle testing—measures that do work. 94% of bTB spread is due to cattle. Without mandatory cattle measures, the cycle of bTB infection in farmed cattle will continue regardless of how many badgers are culled.

Defra's latest consultation on “badger control operations” that closes on 22 April does not stack up—they've killed over 230,000 badgers and barely tested any. Yet, cattle are only slaughtered when they test positive for bTB.  Cattle vaccines are being developed across the world, and they work, yet they delay their deployment.  The government seems happy to spend more on killing badgers than developing the science that could bring bTB rates down.  Their obsession with the badger continues, and nature always pays the price.

Peter Hambly, Executive Director of Badger Trust, said,

“The killing of badgers must stop.  It doesn’t work in bTB control – it never has.  Now, the government plans to kill even more with no end date, without the science case or business case to back it up.  

When they can’t find the badgers to kill, you know we are near local extinction events. After 250,000 years of badgers on this land, we may be nearing the end of the badger in some areas.  

This is a national nature scandal – let’s end the badger cull before it’s too late.”