The only genuine wildlife you will see with be taxidermies in museums.

 

Another year older and last night I was going through the badger files and found my report on the Gloucestershire "mystery" badger deaths as well as newspaper article from 1998 asking whether the badger cull was necessary and concerns over the number killed.

The article also spoke of the raised concerns over the plans to seize more green spaces to build on.

Here we are in 2026 after (officially) 300,000 have been killed in the cull and the cull is supposedly over.

It seems that all the effort and work put in since the badgers became a "protected species" in the 1970s was for nothing. The UK has no concern or interest in the species we are losing (and there are a LOT) so long as Green Sites are built on and the greasy corruption of the government and local authorities-who get caught out and just shrug and say "So what?" the UK will soon be concrete and the only genuine wildlife you will see with be taxidermies in museums.

When Are "Strange and Mysterious" Badger Deaths Not?

  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...

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 wa 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, howwever, 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

Number 63

 

Dead badger number 063 was reported from Stockwood this morning. A lady removed it from the road to stop vehicles repeatedly driving over it.

remember that this is only the 63rd reported dead badger we know of. The actual number of deaths, as noted in a previous post, are likely very high.

RTA Badger 062

 

062     Monday 01 06 2026  A4174 ring road Badger near to Emerson's Green -again flattened and looks to have been there for some time

M5 Badger Cub Rescue

 Bristol Wildlife Rescue (Sarah Mills) was contacted by Avon and Somerset Constabulary who asked if they could assist with a badger on the north side of the M5?

A sow badger had been killed outright by a car -the driver stopped to report it to police as the collision had taken his front bumper off. A cub that was with her ran off and a dog walker watched where it went and made a grass arrow pointing to its position (she had to leave as she had the dog).

The cub was found and after it decided to be uncooperative in getting into a cage (a good sign as it shows it has strength enough -it even puffed itself up). It has some fly strike like its mother but is now with a vet for fluids before it being decided where it goes to recover.

All video/photos (c) 2026 S. Mills

"The UK is currently one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth"

 

"The UK is currently one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, with an average 19% decline in species abundance since 1970. Nearly 1 in 6 (16%) of the over 10,000 studied species are threatened with extinction, placing the country in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity intactness"

http://stateofnature.org.uk/

100,000...60,000...now 50,000: How Badger Death Figures Are Lazy Dogma

 

Over at the Fox Project Bristol (Face Book) I just noted how statistical analysis shows what the true number of road kill foxes might be.

How that is done is explained there but I thought that I would check a couple of the estimation sites and see what figure they come up based on the 61 known deaths in BBG area:

"If 61 badgers are reported killed, the true total is estimated to be between 122 and 183 deaths, as reported collisions often only represent one-third to one-half of actual incidents. The higher total accounts for unrecorded deaths, where animals crawl away to die, and the lack of comprehensive reporting."

Sadly, I have to say that the lower estimate is what I would expect BUT that is me just wanting a low overall figure.

It used to be estimated that 100,000 badgers died on UK roads every year. Then it went down to 60,000 and the new"guess without much work" is 50,000. I cannot see that as accurate. We lost over 300,000 badgers through the unscientific cull and no one knows how many killed illegally and that includes by "badgermen" hired by farmers on the quiet.In some areas badgers are extinct and none could be found to fill cull quotas and bTB free badgers were killed to fill quotas -I will hold back any comment.

I suspect that badger road deaths (genuine ones not staged 'road deaths' to sell to taxidermists) number in the low thousands by now. It shows just how out of touch and reliant on dogma and just repeating easily remembered figures national bodies are -and local groups repeat the same old figures.