Ongoing Projects - an update

I haven't posted in awhile and there are some good reasons for that, so I thought I would update you on whats going on.

Over the last two weeks, the weather hasn't been very inspiring and I have felt out of sorts this has meant I haven't been out as much as usual, add to that I have had an assignment to write for my Master's course.

Camera Trapping
My camera trapping project is coming on a pace and I am still wading through the piles of data to collate them into a suitable document for publishing.
The bait camera trap is still producing excellent results and I am starting to build up a database of individual badgers that use the area.
At home, with help of Ron Bury, I have managed to repair my two Acorn cameras and was able to use one this week to finally solve the mystery of what has been making a hole in the lawn - a mouse!

Campaigning
I m still campaigning against the Badger Cull and the lack of scientific rigour in the government's plans, there will be more on this soon.
Sadly I still haven't heard back from Micheal Gove or my local MP yet.

Owls
Whilst pottering about on my land I discovered a huge haul of over 30 owl pellets. I believe them to be from a Tawny Owl that uses the oak tree as a roost. I have spent the last 2 weeks slowly dissecting each one. It is fascinating to see the number of prey eaten. I have only dissected out 21 so far but have counted 72 individual prey items - all rodents to far although one did contain a beetle leg, another a feather and nearly all of them soil - an indication of worm consumption.

We don't need a cull to reduce Badger numbers!

We don't need a cull to reduce Badger numbers we are already deadly enough.This week just off the estate near a busy road I found this small badger, sadly deceased.

The poor sow didn't seem to have a mark on her. It is likely she was clipped by a car and then struggled to the verge and died of internal injuries. Injured animals often seek a quiet spot when dying and can travel some distance to achieve this.

You can tell the individual is female due to the prominent teat. I had believed that given the small size the sow was a yearling perhaps displaced by new cubs born in the sett during February and March but now I am not so sure, females often remain in the setts and males are more likely to move off.
Luckily despite the teat, there did not seem to be heavy with milk so I hope that there are no orphaned cubs.

A report in 2001 estimated that upward of 50,000 badgers are killed on the roads every year alongside 100,000 foxes and 100,000 hedgehogs (Mammal Society).

This was the first time I have had a chance to have a close up look at a badger and I revelled in her beauty and wallowed in my sadness. You can see clearly the pads on the feet that make the distinctive footprints and the powerful claws used for digging. Death is a natural part of ecology and I have posted before where I have found dead and dying animals, but such an individual as this is different, this one did not suffer a natural death. A death from starvation, disease or predation or even old age, this death was at the hands of a human, intentional or not.

On a side note, I have yet to have had a reply from Micheal Gove or Matt Western which is both disappointing and infuriating, in better news, however, I met with a local county councillor who has agreed to place the matter before the council cabinet, not that I hold out much hope that the county can do much.