No. 86

 Known badger death number 86: Young sow (deceased) A38 off the road

Badger Death Updates

 

083 Saturday 29 08 2026 Dead badger at side of road by cemetery entrance lodgeCanford Lane.

084 Saturday 05 09 2026 “Hi Terry, sadly there’s a deceased badger on the side of the road in the above location. It’s a little dicey to retrieve as there’s no pavement on that side of the road. Would it be possible to let me know what to do? I feel so sorry for it’s little body just lying on the side of a busy road”

085 Saturday 12 09 2026 'Im just running alongBadminton Roadand the junction withAintree Drive. And there is a dead badger by the kerb.

Legal Action Will Be Taken

 Since the "Wild Summit" on Wednesday I have been hearing back from people.  Some referred to a conversation they had with the Bristol Badger Group man. It was NOT me.

I am making it publicly clear and giving noexcuse for anyone. Whether Badger Trust or a representaive of theirs: if they identify themselves as BBG or set up a group by the name Bristol Badgert Group it has been agreed with my solicitor that Trust as well as their rep will be sued.

Bristol Badger group has existed and carried out a great deal of work since 1994 with the Badger trust failing to help at every request for assistance but simply copyibng and pasting something.  

The Badger Trust has behaved badly despite BBG offering to help them when we can. 

A Wild Summit To Achieve....?

 

I need to apologise to Bristol Fox Lady/Bristol Wildlife Rescue Sarah Millsfor dragging her to the so called Wild Summit. I printed out a small fortune (in ink) flyers and info packs to hand out.

Avon Wildlife Trust ("We work through Bristol City Council") were not interested in the fox and badger data. In fact, no one was interested in mammals whether otters, badgers, foxes (plenty of fox photos used though) or even hedgehogs. Bees, butterflies, wild flowers, water purity and conservation nd that was it.

Fella from the Badger Trust talking about setting up a Bristol Badger Group (8 times right next to me) so I jumped in every time and pointed out that I have run BBG since 1994/1995 but he kept it up and told me to my face he had heard of my fox work but not badger work. How good is the Badger Trust when they have had emails etc off me for 30 years and been told repeatedly over the last year there was a BBG? Kept trying to talk over me every time I was amking points based on years of research and work. Nope. Well not be cooperating wityh him or BT.

So making the countryside wild friendly but no one interested in wildlife crossings/tunnels.

Basically it was badly organised and had I paid £240 for a ticket there would have been trouble.

Oh West England .Wildlife Index was not that good. Their data was a mess they noted bird decline (mentioned 8 times as frightening) no idea about mammal decline or fish decline and then they told us how their data was basically not worth much as it needed another 5 years. I think Sarah probably heard my loud grunt as the woman in charge stated "We get data from naturalists but take it with a grain of salt" Talk about insulting the dying breed of people who go out getting the real data and muddied boots. I stopped myself from standing and walking out. I did feel sorry for one of the volunteers who stepped up to exp-lain the work she had been doing but got four heckles of "stand closer to the microphone" and she was nervous enough.

The RSPCA Senior scientific advisor stodd up and I just waited for her to say the great job the RSPCA does for wildlife but in the few minutes she spoke all I learnt was her field of work was tigers. Yes, foxes and badgers and British wildlife are silly so concentrate on ovrseas wildlife (which I am told the RSPCA is doing?!)

The ex copper who said we need better organisation, etc and some forces had no wildlife crime officer well...back into the early 2000s there were plenty of good PWLOs and senior officers were involved. Now we have a situations wth four wildlife crimes in the Bristol area (including a snared otter) and a fox torn up by a dog under the command of its owner and....nothing. We had three foxes found in one day on an allotment and the Wildlife officer visited the site and made notes and was offered the foxes to take (THAT should be standard) but he would not even go and look at the foxes and his notes ("intelligence") was it. THREE suspicious death foxes and the copper would not even look at them. Interestingly a PCSO did a better job and bagged up two foxes and a cat in a suspicious death case and submitted them for post mortems. Obviously the part time policeman had a better grasp of the job than the full time professional.

At times with 'quizzes", stickers, big sheets of paper and colour pens I felt I was back at Glenfrome Road nursery school.

Radio talks the event up well but there was NOTHING to the event just "We need to jolly well show the government by sending in a petition".

I do not likke rudeness or bad manners but that was also very evident at the event.

Basically an online petition appears to have been what was needed for most talks. That a great deal of the information was old -I have sources saying the same f thing from the 1980s and that was built on from 1970s work,

Field or any type of naturalist did not seem to be present. After a remark that anything from a naturalist was taken "with a pinch of salt" that was lucky.

I left thinking that I had lost two hours or so of my rapidly decling life anjd that working by myself seems the best way to go.

I was lucky that Sarah Mills was present as even she commented "Nothing on mammals? Not even hedgehogs!"

Maybe I should have had a table there to push mammals?

Badger 84 -and advice to those finding dead badgers

 "Hi Terry, sadly there’s a deceased badger on the side of the road in the above location. It’s a little dicey to retrieve as there’s no pavement on that side of the road. Would it be possible to let me know what to do? I feel so sorry for it’s little body just lying on the side of a busy road"

As we are blocked from submitting badgers for post mortem "due to Health and Safety bTB concerns" (while PMs are carried out on other badgers) our advice is to leave badgers where they are if on a very busy road since we do not want anyone attempting to move a dead badger and getting hit by a vehicle. If by the side of the road"let nature take its course".

My THANKS to the person who made the report.

And....Dead Badger Number 82 (known)

 Dead badger on the B1333 congresbury road

I don't think wildlife crossing signs would help as motorists know there is wildlife crossing those roads but...

Numbers 80 and 81

080             Friday 14 087 2026  Dead badger at the bottom of  Stockwood Hill

081             Tuesday 18 08 2026  Dead badger , A4174 southbound ( yet again ), just past Dramways Roundabout

Latest fatalities

 

078           Monday 10 08 2026 Dead badger adult on A38 near sidcot Bristol road

079           Monday 10 08 2026 No cub is in langford

How many times have I written this?

 

How many times have I written this?

That people on my own groups need telling again shows the 'interest'.

I am not in any way connected with the Badger Trust. I set up the Bristol Badger Group in 1994 after the Avon Badger Group folded and there was no one, including the RSPCA, willing to deal with calls regarding badgers.

Since 1994 I have on over a dozen occasions sought assistance from the Trust over badger territory/setts at risk of destruction. On not one single occasion was the Trust interested because it is not a get off your ass and do something body.

Had I not intervened then Bristol would now be minus 20 badger setts/territories and even last year I was advising and pro-active in dealing with proposals to sell off and develop old badger territories. It earned me the anger and backlash from Bristol City Council and despite all of that I find the Trust trying to set up a Trust group in Bristol for those interested in badgers BECAUSE I would not pay an annual fee to be on their list.

We have a capable wildlife rescuer who has dealt with badger call outs -otherwise badgers would simply have been ignored.

What is galling is that members oin this and Bristol Foxes and Badgers are donating to a national group with no local interest while BBG struggles alongwith money from my pocket (which is meagre at best).

I do not do the work for publicity or to make money I do it for the wildlife but all of it is reported on here or at Foxes and Badgers where occasionally someone says "Oh. Right." and goes back blankly to ,,,,whatever.

I really feel like I have wasted my life trying to help wildlife and the environment in Bristol. And, even more annoying, the "Where are you from originally?" is insulting. I was born and grew up in Bristol.

Badger Post Mortems -We Need To KNOW Why A Badger Has Died (a lot of cover up going on)

 

The fella who used to run the Avon Badger Group (ceased 1993) used to carry out his own post mortem examinations on badgers and write up reports. BRERC tell us they returned all the files (to a dead man and requested after he died!). The last surviving member of the group has told me she will "proudly" take everything to the grave with her.

So everything up until I set up BBG in 1994 is lost (or hidden at a certain centre).

I trioed repeatedly to get dead badgers necropsied (PMs) from the Bristol area but was told that "badgers cannot be post mortem examined at the pathology lab due to H&S regulations" ('fear' of bTB).

That was an out and out lie because at the same timne I was told that badgers were being necropsied there. And since.

It was a fight to get the fox necropsies and we know that ended with my being threatened with legal action( and the pathologiost personbally got a solicitor to try to close down my publishing business!) if I dared issue the final report (as was agreed on).

Natural England, Bristol University Post Mortem Services, Langford Veterinary School and others were all sent copies of the threats and actions taken against me. It was all sent agin a couple weeks later. Not even a response which very strongly suggests they approved of what was being done.,

So I was barred from ever submitting any wildlife again -even if it was a possible corpse indicating a virus opr disease. They were looking at hedgehog deaths: I was forbidden from submitting the two I had found.

They did (Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme) dance around the fact that three foxes killed by ingesting poison were down to Bristol City Council's rodenticides. But it was easy to find out.

In this type of atmosphere and institutioonalised attitude the likelihood of having badgers PM'd in the local area yet alone nationally is not likely.

Go ask the badger trust about PMs of suspicious death badgers and watch them stutter and blurt out all the copy and paste material they can find online -I asked repeatedly over the years. No idea where all their money goes.

We are literally fighting tooth and nail in this country for anything to do with surveying wildlife health -the situation is better even in Third World countries!

Dead (Known) Badger 077

 

077          Sunday 26 07 2926   27 Haviland Park, Bath BA1 4HR  Elderly male badger6kgs Chest trauma Pts rosemary Lodge vets bath

THIS Is What The UK Thinks of Wildlife

 THIS is the country we live in. A "nation of animal lovers" my ass.

Someone shot and killed a deer, fox, badger and some rabbits then threw them over a gate in Hambrook. They were caught on CCTV and police involved. I have been asked to be kept informed but wildlife crime seems to be treated as a waste of time. Every night men and women go out to shoot and kill for 'fun' and their FB groups call them "sportsmen/women".

Cats, sheep -boring night anything is a fair target. There is no reason why anyone in the UK should have a fire arm other for in enclosed shooting ranges for 'sport'

I have given up on the UK as the people in it seem set to want to kill anything wild.

Welsh Senedd Want To Cover Up Bad Farming Practices?

 Re the Welsh Senedd wanting to cull badgers now.

No, they killed off so many foxes in Wales that wildlife photographers have to come over to England to find some (that is a fact based on 50 years research)

Why not kill off all the badgers based on very bad science? The less wildlife the more houses can be built and then the farmers have nothing to blame for bad animal husbandry.

Taxidermists and Sealed Lips

 

Above a Victorian taxidermy by Rowland Ward

Here is something people need to realise.

Taxidermy is an odd hobby but without it we would have no idea what the Old types of British fox looked like.  When the bristol Fox Deaths Study was launched we would ask whether anyone could help collect and drop off. The carcasses vanished. After a while we learnt that taxidermists were reading the locations of dead foxes and goping out and grabbing them for their own use. Even though we explained the scientific importance of getting foxes that had seemingly died suspiciously, taxidermists quite literally told us where to go.

On one taxidermy group was a photo of a dead badger lying next to a car on what seemed to be a quiet country road. The poster asked whether any taxidemists were interested in buying? Someone said it would be grabbed quickly as badgers were hard to get a hold of. The person explained that 4-5 badgers a week "died on this road every every week". Now THAT is a ridiculous number. I asked what road it was as the local badger group might want to go out and check why so many were dying on the road and see what could be done. I was immediately banned from that group.

Someone on it later told me I was "booted off for asking questions". I learnt that there were fixed rates paid for anbimals and badgers "are worth a lot".  I stated that it was suspicious that so many died EVERY week. I was told "It's fine. Taxidermists are okay -the seller puts up a photo of the badger they are selling at the side of the road so it's bought as a legitimate road kill".

WHAT?!

I found similar on another taxidermy group. I asked (politely) for info and several members of the group told me to keep my nopse out of it....and I got banned.

Taxidermists are now grabbing all the shot and snared foxes they can despite the foxes declining as a specie (rare in Wales which is why photographers travel outside Wales to photograph them and even the RNIB after its mammal survey suggested foxes should be Red Listed). "Legitimately shot -no blood smears"

The person also seems to think the dead foxes can just be sent via the post. Here is the law regarding that:

No, general fresh or unpreserved dead animals are not allowed to be sent through the UK post, but specific exceptions exist for properly preserved biological specimens, dead collectable insects, or authorized veterinary samples.

£15 a fox.and despite what is written no legitimate reason to kill young foxes especially when there is species decline.

3-4 or 5-6 badgers being killed on a quiet country road at the exact same spot EVERY week/month is suspicious. The taxidermists will not report it so it can be investigated but if you see or hear of anything suspicious report it to the police and/or DEFRA as possible wildlife crime.

Badger 076 -Councils Do NOT Care

 South Gloucestershire Council has the same attitude toward wildlife as Bristol City Council. You do something that ends up killing wildlife "Who cares?"

076         Tuesday 14 07 2026 My friend described seeing a dead badger on the A38 near to Thornbury, she believes it was trying to cross the road but was blocked by huge barriers erected by the council while  they lay a new cycle path  She rang the council to complain, but was kept waiting so long she gave up

Poison Suspected? REPORT it!

 The same applies to badgers or any wilod animal

If you ever take a sick fox into a vet and it dies then let us know, If the vet says "It's been poiisoned" then tell them it is a possible wildlife crime and as its poison the fox needs to be submitted to the Wildlife Crimes Investigation Unit or, in Bristol, contact Bristol Uni Post Mortem Services and ask to submit the fox for post mortem examination (PME).

If the vet refuses here is what to bear in mind:

While a vet is generally bound by strict client confidentiality, the [Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons](https://www.rcvsknowledge.org/.../when-is-it-safe-to.../) (RCVS) explicitly allows them to bypass this rule and report concerns to the relevant authorities if they believe the wider public interest or animal welfare is severely compromised.

The illegal use of pesticides or poisons can be reported to the government's [Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme](https://www.hse.gov.uk/.../wildlife-incident...) (WIIS) on 0800 321 600.

We have had seven vets in Bristol over the past few years who have told people "Its been poisoned" and in all cases the foxes were victims of car strike.

"Poison" -report and submit. NEVER EVER state an animal has been poisoned unless you have evidence as certain symptoms often quoted as evidence of poisoning can be related to other causes of death.

Thank you and good night Vienna.

Number 75

 075 Monday 13 07 2026 Dead badger on the side of The Portbury Hundred

The term "Portbury 100" most commonly refers to the Portbury Hundred (A369), a key dual-lane highway connecting Portishead to Junction 19 of the M5 motorway near Portbury, North Somerset.

Avon Badger Group -History and Papaers GONE. What About Bristol Badger Group?

 

Anything to do with the late Mike Collins and his work while running the Avon Badger Group seem lost. Avon Wildlife Trust just don't respond and BRERC claims all the data was returned to a group that ceased before 1994 and either a dead man or...or they are lying?

No photos seem to exist of Collins and I wanted to do a detailed historical lo0ok at ABG and his work. The one remaining member I could find (in her 80s) stated she never got any papers back and she also refuses to forward what she has/knows "I shall take them proudly to my grave".......

So anything Avon Badger Group is lost or being kept locked away.

Anhy of my stuff is destinned to go (I am going to box it all up in the next few weeks) to The Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum as I know my family have no interrest and it would all be burnt or binned and thertefore 50 years work would be gone.

KNOWN Badger 74!

 074 Sunday 12 07 2026 dead badgerClevedon Road top of Longwood Lane.

As I've written before -it's relentless.

The Actual Number of Badger Deaths in Bristol

 I did a recent post on the Fox Project Bristol and my blog about reported so KNOWN fox deaths and what the actual total might be.

 https://terryhoopernaturalist.blogspot.com/2026/07/182-reported-dead-foxes-total-is-higher.html

 That was scary enough but then I wondered whether statistics could guestimate the actual number  of dead badgers in the City and County of Bristol (yes, for those who did not know Bristol is not just a City). So far we have had 73 reported death so ....

The actual number of badgers killed is likely much higher than 73 . Experts estimate that up to (50,000\) badgers die on UK roads yearly. Studies show that for every dead badger seen and reported 2-3 others often die nearby or off-road from their injuries. Therefore, 73 observed deaths could mean 146  to 219 actually died.

First off it used to be 100,000 then 60,000now 50,000 is the estimate. I do not believe that after the cull took 300,000 badgers that 50,000 are currently dying. The population is so low and even though no longer present in certain areas (due to the cull) that 50,000 each year would mean we have 2-3 years before badgers are extinct.

I have asked Highways England and they do not record what dead animals their teams remove from roads. A simple email reading "Orpington  23 06 2026 badger" (or "fox" could be sent. How long does that take?  But local highway authorities such as Bristol City (Green) Council's Street Clean Team will not even cooperate: they just pick up and send for incineration.

That said, sadly, a total of 146+/- would not surprise me. And remember this is just road deaths not death by rodenticide, snaring or illegal killing by local badger men and badger baiting (yes, that still goes on).

Rather like foxes and the fast decreasing UK population I think it time English badgers were moved onto the Red List as a species facing extinction.