Badger Book , livre ebook

Graffeg - Jo Byrne

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290 pages

English

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The Badger Book takes its place as part of Graffeg's compact, accessible Nature Book series, exploring our relationship with some of Britain's best-loved wild creatures.This addition introduces the wonderfully mysterious and enigmatic Meles meles to the newly curious with fresh information in store for those with a long-standing interest. An inhabitant of these lands for thousands of years, badgers have been both revered and reviled, cherished and tormented, beloved and brutalised - The Badger Book takes a closer look at Britain's largest carnivorous mammal.Alongside magical photography, we examine the science - and politics - around bTB and the controversial badger cull as well as introducing a passionate group of ordinary people dedicated to rescuing them, followed by a meander through the myth, legend, art and literature which has incorporated them into our culture. Chapters include:Badger PhysiologyBadger WatchingBadger ThreatsThe CullThe Badger Protectors: Wounded Badger Patrol CheshireBadgers in Myth & LegendBadgers in Art & Literature

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Publié par	Graffeg
Date de parution	18 février 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781913733995
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	10 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Badger Book

by Jo Byrne
Series editor Jane Russ

Dedication
Dedicated to Wounded Badger Patrollers and Pixies across all of the cull zones. Thank you for your passion and your determination. Thank you for every single badger saved.

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Contents

5 Introduction
11 Badger Physiology
12 In the Beginning…
18 You Lookin’ at Me?
21 Social vs Sociable
23 Family Planning
31 Keep the Noise Down...!
32 Chowtime
40 Home, Sweet Home
48 Off to the Loo
51 Badger Watching
63 Threats to Badgers
75 The Cull
95 The Badger Protectors – Wounded Badger Patrol Cheshire
107 Badgers in Myth and Legend
125 Badgers in Art and Literature

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Introduction

Introduction

I have an unbelievably soft spot for this noble yet elusive mammal. Their shy nature, bumbling sort of gait and iconic colouring. Unfortunately, like many of us, it’s mostly online videos I can watch of them larking about as cubs outside their setts or snuffling around in people’s backyards enjoying snacks and treats left out for them. They seem gentle and family-oriented, funny yet fierce, but are, unfortunately, demonised by the government and dairy industry over bovine tuberculosis (bTB). In fact, in one form or another, badgers have been brutalised by hunters and baiters for centuries.
My first ever protest. My first ever demonstration. The first time I felt enraged enough to risk the wrath of the authorities and physically stand against a government decision. I was protesting the badger cull outside

Westminster – nervously chanting along with the others but enthralled and excited about the turnout. Surely the government, DEFRA and Natural England would hear the impassioned calls for a halt to the bloody killing? Surely they would consider the science that showed that whilst badgers could transmit bovine tuberculosis (bTB) to cattle, it didn’t necessarily mean there were transmitting it.
The protests fell on deaf ears.
By the start of the cull season the following year, I’d given up shouting outside Westminster and marching to the DEFRA offices proffering petitions and pleas. By then, I’d donned my walking boots and hi-vis and joined Wounded Badger Patrols in the cull zones wherever and whenever I could –

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Introduction

civil resistance groups made up of ordinary, everyday people like myself determined to try save the badgers. While the patrollers are out there trudging around in the middle of the night, the shooters are not allowed to free-shoot and must, instead, rely on killing cage-trapped badgers for their bounty fees.
There were 64,000 badgers on DEFRA’s hit list for 2020 – in 54 cull zones, across 16 counties. But the resistance goes on and I will continue to resist until the slaughter ends.
In this book we’ll cover the issue of bTB and look at the science – offered by both sides – as to the reasons for the cull but we’ll also meet some of the people determined to resist them. After all the seriousness of badger bloodshed, we’ll take a look at badgers in myth and legend as well as art and literature.
First, however, we’ll look at the physiology of the badger, how they’ve evolved over the millennia, how they

live together (but not actually live together!) and some of the many, many fascinating facts about this enigmatic mammal.
Did you know, badgers can ‘choose’ when to fall pregnant? Furthermore, if undisturbed, badgers will occupy the same setts for hundreds and hundreds of years! Badgers often prefer to live with the clan they were born into for the rest of their lives and they even have a ‘favourite’ earthworm!
Hopefully – despite the culls and the baiters and the hunters – we can trust the words of Badger from Kenneth Grahame’s classic Wind in the Willows : ‘We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.’

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Badger Physiology

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Badgers are the land-tanks of the Mustelidae family. Whilst most of the group are thin and slinky and fast – like weasels, ferrets, otters and pine martins – the badger is short and stout with powerful legs. The European, or Eurasian, Badger ( Meles meles ) grows the heaviest of the badger species, as much as 20kg or so when fattened up in autumn – as well as the biggest – up to 30cm tall and up to 90cm long. Effectively, the size of a big, heavy dog!
Badgers are the largest carnivorous mammals in the UK.
The European badger is found across Europe and into parts of Asia. Other than some of the islands, they are found throughout most of the UK. Some areas, like south west England, are more densely populated than others. They're less common on

the flatlands of East Anglia because they're, wisely, very particular about soil conditions. Clay soil risks flooding and anything too chalky poses a risk of setts collapsing.
In the Beginning…
It is thought that badgers began to evolve separately from their long- tailed, climbing cousins within the Mustelid family around 20 million years ago. The earliest fossil remains dated back 2 million years have been found in France. Bones unearthed in West Sussex suggest that brock has been with us for the last 750,000 years.
Subsequent glacial periods forced the badgers out of northern Europe, sending them to regions we now know as Italy and Spain. Around 10,000 years ago, melting glaciers

Badger Physiology

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Badger Physiology

gave the badger the opportunity to rootle and bumble their way back to Britain, where they’ve been found ever since.
A male badger is known as a boar; a female badger is called a sow and young are known as cubs.
Like other mustelids, badgers have strong anal scent glands – two inside the anus and one deep subcaudal gland just above the anus. These glands produce strong, musky, smelly secretions which the badgers use to recognise each other and their territories. Each clan has a unique scent. The badgers will squat briefly against each other and leave their scent on each other as well as around their sett, their latrines and along their well-worn pathways. The dominant boar in each clan, or colony, of badgers will scent more

than the others. Badgers have even been known to scent-mark humans they’ve become accustomed to!
The name ‘badger’ is thought to derive, simply, from the word ‘badge’ in reference to their distinct facial markings being like a badge, emblem or decoration. Other references indicate the word might come from the old French words bêcheur , meaning ‘digger’, or blaireau, meaning ‘corn hoarder’.
A common nickname for our noble beast is ‘brock’ – derived from Old English (brocc), Middle English (broc) – and has lent itself to the naming of various towns and villages across the UK, including Brockenhurst in Hampshire, and Brock (next to the River Brock) in Lancashire.

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You Lookin’ at Me?
With its white face and bandit mask, the badger’s distinct facial pattern is truly unmistakable. The rest of the body is covered in a dense white underfur overlaid by coarse guard hairs which are largely white, save for a black band near the tip, giving the badger an overall grey, almost salt ‘n’ pepper colouring. The legs and underbelly are usually black. Badgers will fluff up their fur if they get a fright or are alarmed.
There are also ginger (erythristic) badgers that have light brown or distinct red fur (see opposite). White badgers (either leucistic or albino), in which their black pigment is replaced by white, are rare but not impossible to find.
Overall, it is a stocky, low-slung and powerfully built mammal. With a

tube-like shape, thick neck, strong shoulders and front legs sporting long, non-retractable claws, the badger’s design is perfect for digging and tunnelling.
Badgers have small eyes, which would be expected of an animal enjoying a good portion of life underground, but their sight is adequate. They have small ears as well but with good hearing. It’s a badger’s sense of smell, however, that makes theirs a world of scent rather than sound or vision. The wet, flexible nose is around 800 times better than ours at sniffing out information and is one of the largest noses in the mustelid family. A generous nasal cavity filled with small, heavily pleated bones makes for a large surface area for picking up smells. Sensitive whiskers are found around the nose