Just A Quick Update

 I had yet another email from someone who told me that they had not been able to contact Avon Badger Group by email or phone. They saw the details on the Badgerland website but apparently Badger Watch UK also gave them ABG details.

1.  I have tried to get Badgerland to correct their details for Bristol for 10 years but it seems they cannot answer emails so...

2. Badger Watch UK know perfectly well that ABG ceased to exist and that Bristol Badger Group took over.

If you are looking for advice on badgers or wish to report a dead badger or a sett location so it can be recorded for protection contact me at hoopert1957@gmail.com

Badger injuries etc Bristol Wildlife Rescue:

Avon Badger Group -At Last Some Information

 Thanks to Suma Kin I can now put faces to the core personnal of the old Avon Badger Group: Mike Collins, Barbara Brady and Dave Pulley.

I've added what Suma wrote alongside the tribute from Somerset Badger Watch.

According to Suma:

"They were such a fantastic team, this was on the Somerset Badger group at the time, Pauline Kidner did a similar tribute on SW.

"Dave Pulley drove all the way to Wales once to rescue a mouse. Dave once attended report of a badger in a Bristol garden, arrived to find all children locked inside for safety and a hedgehog!"

I do know that Mike Collins performed badger post mortems in his garden and there was one case I was very interested in the results of but it seems that those records are now gone forever.

ABG appears to have been a real grass roots, no bureaucrasy "get the job done" team and even though we have lost their records it is important to acknoiwledge the contributions they made to help badgers in Bristol.

Do We Just Give Up?

 

By 2019 I had been in touch with Avon Wildlife Trust (AWT) a number of times, especially since forming BBG in 1994 after two years of finding Avon Badger Group under Mike Collins had gone defunct. Sadly I can find nothing online about Mike or the ABGs work and the only surviving member I did find was in her 80s and told me, regarding the ABG work/results, that she was "proudly taking them to the grave".

That does not helop badgers.

Anywway, AWT never bothered responding to results of wildlife surveys or other data. and that still applies.

In 2019 they posted this on their website regarding "bovine TV" (they did correct that further down.

Saving Avon’s Badgers | Avon Wildlife Actors Trust

If you’re out for a summer’s evening walk or drive, you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a black and white creature scurrying across a lane or skirting the edge of a woodland, its stocky form and short legs moving quickly. It will be a badger of course – a shy, nocturnal mammal and a wonderful animal to spot.

Badgers, like many wild animals, have plenty of myths and folklore attached to them, including the idea that if a badger walks across the path you have just walked on, you’re in for very good luck! And badgers have long been featured in literature, associated with wisdom – think badger in The Wind in the Willows who deals firmly with the mischievous Mr Toad, and the loyal Hufflepuffs in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts who have the trusty badger as their house emblem.  And badgers and the setts they live in have been protected by law in England and Wales since 1992 when The Protection of Badgers Act was passed by parliament, so they hold an important place amongst our native wildlife.

But these animals have been at the centre of much debate over the last decades. The Government’s strategy to halt the spread of bovine TV – a disease which affects cattle and causes immense hardship and devastation for farmers – has led to many thousands of badgers being killed due to the fact that badgers, like other wild animals, also suffer from bovine TB. Research however, shows that they are not the main way cattle become infected and that in fact, cows spreading the bovine TB bacteria to other cows is the key problem in herds becoming infected.

Avon Wildlife Trust – alongside the movement of 46 Wildlife Trusts across the UK – is opposed to the culling of badgers and we’ve this week started vaccinating badgers for the first time to protect badger families from the disease. We’ve started at a small scale, vaccinating badger families of adults and cubs on a woodland site at one of our nature reserves. Over the next four years, we want to extend across other nature reserves and work with other landowners and farmers to vaccinate more badgers across larger areas of landscape.

We’ve taken this step as a way to help tackle the problem of bovine TB in the Avon region and demonstrate an alternative to the cull policy – a safe alternative which is cost-effective, and which saves our wild badger populations in years to come. Several other Wildlife Trusts in different parts of the country have been running successful badger vaccination programmes for some time and research from trials carried out showed that three quarters of badgers which had been vaccinated had a reduced rate of infection. 

Our aim is to continue the work we’ve started this week and play our part in helping to find solutions to the problem of bovine TV whilst ensuring Avon’s wild badgers can thrive into the future.

To find out more about our badger vaccination work and the funding we need to do more please go to avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/saveourbadgers

Now, I have left that link as previously an "error" message was showing but I kept trying as knowing locations of badger clans it might help vaccinate the poipulation -even though there is no real threat from Bovine TB .   I sent emails asking for information on the vaccination programme.  I mentioned this to two people from AWT at the Wilkd Summit in September and they were very vague on the subject. They were "shocked" when looking at the Badger Death Register entires.  I did give my details and they promised to poass this along.

Nothing.

Today I tried the website again and clicked the link and:

"Oops. Sorry, this page couldn't be found. Here are some pages we think you might like instead."

Nothing but birds, clean water but mammals particularly foxes and badgers ...did you guess "nothing"? I was told by both people at the AWT stand "we work under Bristol city council" and we know how BCC feels about wildlife and the environment -it doesn't.

Since moving to Ashton Vale in 1994 I carried out surveys and on each occasion AWT was not interested. This all seems odd and thirty years on I still wonder wehat it does.

Stoats, hedgehogs, deer of various species, foxes and badgers -in a City and County with all of these mammals why are we not promoting education about them or letting people know they are here at least? It seems hedgehogs get some press when it might attract attention but badgers and foxes? No.

 We need wildlife groups and trusts to educate and make it clear to people that we are on the verge of losing hedgehogs, the fox population has dropped by an estimated 60% anbd the badger cull has resulted in 300,000 official deaths and a population under threat. Sitting back and doing nothing will not help unless your mind set is that you can take the grand children to see what foxes, hedgehogs and badgers looked like "when we still had them".

Imagine trhe answer you wil;l have to give when the grand kids ask "What did you do to try to save them?"

I was asked again

 I was asked again on a form what I had done to make LBQT+ people more integrated into my wildlife work?

My first response was that no one had ever expressed interest in my wildlife work and, secondly, what the hell does being "LBQT+" have to do with wildlife work?

Do you have the experioence> The enthuisiasm to get wet, cold and worn out? Are you able to do wildlife work or spend hours checking bthrough archives online ?

If someone says to me "I have trail cams to carry out a survey of a badger territory to add to our knowledge base" do you think I ask "Are you straight, LBQT+?" Like do I. I see how they get on amnd if they can still remain enthusiastic about the work after a few months.... good.

The other question, of course, is "How ethnically diverse is your work -do you promote diversity?" At this point my minde is using lots of very rude words while my mouth does all the diplomatic nice talking.

Same applies here as with LBQT+ -can the person do the work? I grew upin St Werburghh's when we had a mix of Polish, Russian, German, Hungarian, Afro Carribean and so on.

The WORK is what is impoirtant but I note my last twop EU wildlife graqnts failed as there was "no LBQT+ or ethnic diversity integration".

No wonder us naturalists are dying out

People Proudly Boast Online About Badger/Wildlife Abuse

 I read an item on MSN yesterday about the RSPCA warning people to avoid grey squirrels as they might bite or scratch. The comments on this post then erupted into anti fox and anti badger comments.

People called badgers a nuisance for being in their garden and openly stated that they made as much noise around setts as they could and that over a few days the badgers or foxes moved on. They also stated how they let their children invite over friends to make as much noise in the garden as they could with the intention of driving off badgers and even blocking badger entrances into gardens and free run to their setts.

They are all describing illegal actions interrfering with bnadger and active fox dens with cubs in. Police could easily trace the accounts (I did with two) owners an initiate an investigation. But... too much hard work and even the confession online in a public forum can be dismissed as evidence.

This is the country we live in. NOT a nation of animal lovers, it never was -it is a Victorian/Edwardian chocolate box invention at a time when hunts and pro hunt supporters mocked and even got "physical" with (spat out with bile) "humanitarians". Yes, being a humanitarian was a dirty thing back then.

Badgers shot or snared and dumped by the roadside because everyone knows that drivers will not stop to check "just road-kill".

We have had foxes snared in the area but left by the road and only a post mortem revealed the cause of death. Was anything done to find out who was doing this? No.

We had an otter found dead by the roadside near afishing site. Road-kill? No. It was snared. Wildlife crime so what happened? Nothing.

We had a man set his dog onto a fox in Blaise Castle Park in front of people -good description of dog and owner. Fox torn up and thge post mortem added to eye witness reports. Action taken? None.

Another man set his dog onto a fox cub in Kingswood and killed it; and it was reported to police. Action -none.

Three foxes found one day on a local allotment that is pro rewilding and no poisons are used. Police wildlife officer went to the site and took statements. The foxes were on a compost heap 300 yards away and the allotment holders assumed the officer would take them for examination in case of wildlife crime. He would not even go and look at the foxes. He told everyone that he had "gathered intelligence" and that was it. Blind eye of the police at work and the officer never responded to messages.

It goes on and on and then we have the losses on our streets due to speed bumps having been removed and no signs about wildlife crossing or monitoring of speed of vehicles -deer, squirrels and over 270 foxes and 80+ badgers (known).

Oh, and every night across the country men and women go out to shoot and kill for 'fun' with impunity.

All of this I deal with on a weekly basis "Just foxes" and "sad about the badger, isn't it?" are responses from officials IF they respond at all.

Our fox and badger numbers are hitting all time lows and our hedgehogs are not doing much better. Hedgehogs, badgers and foxes need to be Red Listed and REALLY protected and people going out killing them for 'fun' need to be prosecuted heavily (including the off duty police officers who are in the mix).

When the public are anti wildlife and teach their kids to be anti wildlife you realise that however much you push and fight it is a losing battle.

Updating The Badger Log

 

Just to update.

I have just been adding more info to the locations of badger activity/setts in the area covered by Bristol Badger Group.

I need to make something clear.

When I state "badger activity" I mean a sighting (regular) whether regular visitors to a garden or just seen moving about an area. It means, of course, that there is a badger sett in those areas it is just that we do not know where.

The policy has always been to log activity but not go out searching for a sett or checking on them as such activity attracts the wrong sort of attention.

Unless a sett or long established clan territory is under threat we keep a low profile.

We are NOT going to build up a big map and post it around or list locations. Priority is animal welfare and safety.

This practice of logging animal species sightings but not divul;ging l;ocations is built upon field experience from 1976 and 1977 when I became a UK police forces exotic animal consultant. There are active hunting groups (shooters) which really should be banned but they are spread throughout wildlife groups online and they pose a serious threat to animals. Badger baiting has taken place in Gloucestershire and so there is extra caution.

Again, if you know of a sett message me and if you see anyone hanging around a sett you do not know please report it.

So, how many locations are listed? 56 why so many? Well you have to remember that Eastville, Easton, Filton and many other areas of Bristol were once villages and badgers lived near each village so as each village became a part of Bristol so did its badgers -trapped in a growing sea of roads and buildings.

I am not sure how big London's urban badger population is but we need to protect what we have.

Regular News and An Apprentice?

 

On more regular news: added a new badger sett location to the list and been able to advise someone on a sett they are concerned about as Bristol Counciul may be clearing up the area.

I already have some quite experience people who check on setts and if needed I can call on them to double check and confirm an active sett.

It was suggested that I needed to get a young apprentice to eventually take over the badger and other wildlife work. What's needed:

Dedication to wildlife
Understanding that you willhave no social life and holidays are a rarity (my last holiday was in 1984 and Germany and, of course, I ended up dealing with wildlife)
Have no fear of officials whether councillors, mayors or MPs/government ministers and government departments. They will try anything including threats. So a backbone (or being stupid) is needed. Able to take the official backlash at times.
The understanding that, unless a sett/clan are threatened by development confidentiality and keeping your mouth shut on where badgers are is very important.
Not be afraid of mud, heat, cold, drought or torrential rain. Weather will be youre new companion.

I cannot over emphasise the fact that dedication is needed and that social life is going to be restricted. I will wave off the need for 50 years of learning as that requires a LOT of bookshelves.  Also the person would need good teeth to snap back at officials who get threatening!

NJow I look at the list I can see why I may have a few problems.