Sunday 5 January 2014

Badgers and Panda Cars

When I was a kid Police cars were always known as Panda Cars. Kids being kids we had no pandas so we used to know them as badger cars.
When I look at this film of my badgers which was taken back in October, I think back to the Spring when I would watch Daddy Cool and Mother badger nurture and reprimand their tiny infants.  The Spring of 2013 was savage.  Cold for so long, food was as scarce for the badgers as I can ever remember.  The Mayfly for my beloved fishing was almost none existent due to the cold weather. When mother badger appeared with her cubs she was skin and bone.  She was struggling to supply her young ones with the nourishing milk that they needed and this was on a good territory.
Badger numbers were depleted countrywide by about 25%.  Then from the middle of May onwards, nature rallied.  It was a great summer, supplying the necessary sustenance for all species.
I watched Daddy Cool and his family gain condition.  It was joyful, and then along came the dreadful badger cull.  Badgers shot, the carcasses not even being tested for TB, however, the most damaging aspect to all of this, it effectively lifted the 'Protected Status' from the badger.  And now there is barely a day that goes by when you don't hear of some atrocity being dished out to the wildlife icon.  Badgers being skinned, badgers being hung, badgers having their paws cut off, badgers being caught in gin traps and snares, badgers being found with cross bow bolts in their bodies.  It is a nightmare I cannot believe that I am having to witness, and I feel sure David Cameron and his ministers could no more shoot a badger than I could.  It is a situation that has now got out of control.
The badger sow is now slowing down all over the country, she is now heavily pregnant and she is thinking of the future.
If we want badgers everywhere to have a future we must all be vigilant and on our guard at all times, especially through these dark winter months.
The deed I despise most is badger baiting. An exercise that can take hours.  Badgers die an agonising, horrendously slow death along with a number of dogs, because no one dog will ever get the better of one badger.  As one dog is depleted they put in another, then another, then another.  A badger will fight to protect its family to the end and the results is always carnage and death.
This practise is on the rise due to this absurd, unscientifically based ill-judged badger cull and if you happen to see activity around any known badger sett that you think is suspicious, ring the police, for the police along with the RSPCA are the strongest allies and best friends the badger will ever have.
The Lord Protector of our woodlands now needs all the protection he can get.
All those years ago, we didn't call the panda car, badger car for nothing.

Watch my short film on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VW62OwcONU


My Badgers Resting









1 comment:

  1. I'm glad that my local badgers are on a SWT reserve and fully protected.

    ReplyDelete