After going clear of our almost five year TB breakdown, which I described in the first posting, we rumbled along with just a few IRs for the next couple of years. The RBCT badger trappers had caught the culprits of the dairy herd carnage in their second and final visit here. But those inconclusives still snarled us up in movement restrictions until December 2007, when we finally shook ourselves free.
During this time, badger activity was low, but our deer management team reported that badgers had started digging what they thought was a new sett, about 100 yards from our boundary. As we had no badgers at all on the farm now, we welcomed these to act as a buffer against all the old, sick and excluded badgers, turfed out from setts on farms surrounding us.
But in the spring of 2007, a badger expired in a gateway to one of our fields, fairly close to this area. And on closer inspection, we found this was not a 'new build' at all. It was a huge old sett about sixty feet long, which had been abandoned. The new holes were singles and not particularly active. At our July 2008 test, we had a bunch of IRs and another reactor, followed by two steers with lesions in January 2009.
This week, a trip through the woods, revealed a 'spring clean' undertaken by a new tenant of this old sett.
Having asked some people who know about these things, they say that the skull and leg bones appear to be at least 6 months old, possibly up to year. (Which ties in nicely with our problems in July '08).
They could be older but are certainly no less. They are the skull, femur and tibia of a 'fully mature, well grown animal as shown by the very high parietal crest on the top of the skull.
The teeth are worn and from that, the animal would appear to be at least 5 years old. (in other words, not a youngster setting up house). The height of the crest of the skull, and the width of the jaws indicate a very powerful animal, likely to be male'.
I have heard about 'hospice' setts, and listened to descriptions of 'skeletons and skulls' ejected by another occupant, but until now, never seen one. The concept is vehemently denied by badger watchers and of course, Defra. But where do they imagine aged, sick, infirm or excluded badgers go to die? And where do they suppose population explosions of some 77 per cent in each decade, set up home? Are they expected to build tower blocks? Sit on each other's shoulders?
The blurb that accompanies public access to
"The most common way to study or watch badgers in the field is at the sett" the paper purrs, and the notes advise watchers to 'choose a sett, sit downwind of it, where you can see the entrance holes. Sit low in undergrowth, wearing clothing that doesn't rustle, with your back to a tree about 5-10 m away from the entrance, at dusk or dawn. Don't disturb the badgers and make sure they have either left their sett, or returned underground before you leave'.
Woodchester wouldn't have many returning visitors if they'd queued to see this pile of bones. And for any badgers which may be healthy, trying to refurbish this sett, their chances of remaining so if the previous occupant had got TB - and our tested, sentinel (and now dead) cattle indicate that it had - are minimal. M.bovis can survive years underground, and may also be present in the bone marrow of the deceased, should anything try to sharpen its teeth.
Seeing skulls and old bones outside of setts is common place. I saw hundreds during my 10 years with Defra. Healthy badgers do die naturally with old age, and their bones do get cleaned out of setts when others move in. I don't believe that there is anything unusual about what Pat has seen - it is a natural, everyday event.
I don't believe that a couple of holes in a sett sixty feet long, and otherwise abandoned, are a sign of an active, healthy sett, containing 10+ badgers. And our latest breakdown coincides with this sett being occupied with a single entrance and low grade activity. A pathologist's opinion of the age and condition of this skull and leg bones do not indicate a group of youngsters on the move and setting up home.
The previous breakdown in our dairy herd was tracked by the RBCT team to a single hole sett 200 yards from the farm buildings, its occupants in dire condition when eventually caught.
Where they had come from, I've no idea. But I know where they ended up. And the consequences of their visits.
Sorry - previous comment not anonymous - it was mine.
Pat
Re first comment.
If you were in a culling team, you were in a TB area.
We don't see this around our setts, but there isn't any TB in our cattle so we assume the badgers are healthy.
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