Motoring Discussion > Badgers - the end is nigh? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: sherlock47 Replies: 17
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 19:52 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - sherlock47
Driving around north Devon this afternoon I must have seen more than 10 mutilated dead badgers at the roadside in about 2hours.

Have they all spontaneously decided to commit hara-kiri to deprive the farmers of their fun, or is it the result of poorly co-ordinated farmers just winging an animal and thus handicapping it in its struggle against the automobile?
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 19:59 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - -
Same in my travels, seen more dead badgers in the last 5 years than the previous 45ish.

I don't think they are injured victims just they have bred in larger numbers.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:00 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Robin O'Reliant
I see at least one a week down here. In fact I got one myself a couple of years ago, fortunately it was a young one and only the wheel went over it. They are solid things and would make doggy doo out of the piece of colour coded tissue paper that passes for a bumper these days.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:25 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Manatee
If you'd shot a badger or two where would you leave the corpses;-)

They are fairly poor road crossers though. They don't dart about, once they've set off they just keep going, no apparent evasive action. I see them crossing occasionally round here if I return late. We get them in the garden if it's been very dry - they come to dig for food in the softer ground.

I hit one a few weeks ago just as it came on to the road, I felt it front nearside, rear offside, and when I looked in the mirror it was still going. Tough things.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:32 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - corax
>> I hit one a few weeks ago just as it came on to the road,
>> I felt it front nearside, rear offside, and when I looked in the mirror it
>> was still going. Tough things.

You're telling me. I used to set the irrigation on a golf course in the evening, and sometimes took a short cut through the woods to get back to the pump more quickly. As I drove down the path in the gator, a badger was trotting along in front of me. He didn't like being followed because he turned on me. I veered off for fear of being bitten. They can leave teeth marks in a spade.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:37 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - -
He didn't like being followed because he turned on
>> me. I veered off for fear of being bitten. They can leave teeth marks in
>> a spade.

I'm sure i read somewhere that Dachshunds were used to flush out badgers in times gone by.

I have a vision of a badger peeing itsen with laughter at the sight of a Dach's squaring up to it, shirley i must be mistaken.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:49 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Armel Coussine
Badgers have no road sense whatsoever. I know this because I ran over one once, silly animal ran straight under my wheels on a fast bend outside a good friend's farm in Sussex.

An adult badger can make a damn great dent in your front spoiler, believe me.

'Oh, thet was you was it?' my farmer friend said when I told him about it. He likes foxes because they eat a lot of rabbits and not many lambs, but I don't think he cares much for badgers.
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New Mon 20 Sep 10 08:21 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Biggles
>I'm sure i read somewhere that Dachshunds were used to flush out badgers in times gone by.


Thatis why they have the name Dachshund - the German for Badger is Dachs.
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New Mon 20 Sep 10 17:49 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - -

>> Thatis why they have the name Dachshund - the German for Badger is Dachs.
>> ..

Thanks B, still can't get the vision of a badger helpless with mirth at the sight of one of 'em out of me head though.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:38 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - bathtub tom
>>If you'd shot a badger or two where would you leave the corpses;-)

That's precisely what a farmer told me!
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:43 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Dog
If the roadkill is fresh, stick it in the deep freeze, then do the missus a Blarieur au sang and tell her its Pork.
(yum, yum!)
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:51 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - MD
It is alleged that Badger Ham is delightful.
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 21:42 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Dog
We used to eat Brock ere in Blighty during WW2 and the 50's - not us as in us :)
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 20:53 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - MD
Strangely enough I was only thinking this morning that I haven't seen many Badger corpses for ages. (Rural north Devon).
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 21:06 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Runfer D'Hills
Be that big cat thingy eaten 'em all.....
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 21:34 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - sherlock47
MD

(Rural north Devon).

???
I was in the North Tawton, Bideford, Tiverton triangle.
Last edited by: pmh on Sun 19 Sep 10 at 21:34
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New Sun 19 Sep 10 21:54 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Harleyman
Was discussing this very matter t'other day with one of our drivers, and he observed that the increase in badger corpses seems to be in direct proportion to the decrease in flat hedgehogs.

Given the outcry hereabouts by animal rights people about culling badgers to control bovine TB, I can't help but think the farmers have missed a trick here; it's fairly obvious to me that since both badgers and hedgehogs compete for the same foods, the badger is currently winning probably due to its size, so all the farmers needed to do was to advertise the fact that by culling badgers they're preserving the hedgehog population.

As to the shooting (and then dumping) of badgers; since the authorities go around picking up the dead badgers and checking them for TB, it wouldn't be a very clever idea to dump shot ones by the verge. Apart from that a dead badger is quite heavy, had to move one off a farm lane last week and it's a two-handed job to lift them.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Sun 19 Sep 10 at 21:55
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New Mon 20 Sep 10 18:05 
 Badgers - the end is nigh? - Mapmaker
Dumping dead foxes on the road, and then running over them a couple of times is a well-known trick. Once upon a time I knew a bloke who told me he did it - and I have no reason to disbelieve him. Easier than digging a hole.
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