I absolutely agree that the protection they currently receive should be removed. It makes no ecological sense at all.
Badger vaccination
- Thread starter Mungo
- Start date
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
It does if you look at the current free for all, kill ‘em all attitude commonly shown towards fox and corvids regardless of whether or not they are actually doing any harm.
Maybe an open season for brock, with quotas tags and limits is the way forward.
Brock is easy to control, particularly nowadays with access to thermal and night vision equipment
A very broad sweeping statement, kill em all, you have no footprint on the lands that those who shoot fox operate over.
An interesting paper, which to be fair on the authors they state in the introduction that it is not proof it works, but shows the technique can vaccinate a large proportion of the population and points to a larger scale study with controls.
There are some flaws however with large confidence intervals and they don't seem to have done any statistical analysis, so these results may just be random chance.
There are some flaws however with large confidence intervals and they don't seem to have done any statistical analysis, so these results may just be random chance.
Just about sums it up.
Whose going to pay for managing the quotas and controlling the tags?
As for easy to control? How many 'volunteers' are willing to spend hours sitting over a sett on a winters night for nil financial return. You've only got to look at the booming deer population to see that "volunteers" aren't doing the job efficiently.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
No one, you wont have to pay.
Just take them off the list of protected species and stand back. Theres already a horde out there just ravening for the opportunity to whack every one they see to protect whatever it is they eat, and they’ve got to eat something.
Badgers are fairly sedentary, they are slow movers and the new night vision technology allows them to be targeted very effectively on the darkest night. They are stupid easy to find and hunt, I had a Shepherd that would seek them out in the fields at night and hammer them flat all on her own. It got so bad I had to walk her on a lead.
If you’ve got time, sit on a sett with a firearm, they’ll eventually appear and if you can’t be arsed with a random wait, a camera will tell you both when and where to sit next time. A casual look at a sett will tell whether or not its occupied.
Just look at what we do with foxes and corvids, badgers will be happily hammered by the very same “ I’m protecting ground nesting birds, hedgehogs and livestock “ brigade.
Digging up lawns and golf courses will be added to the list of offences meriting summary execution.
For my 2 bobs worth, they need some level of protection.
Take them if you have to… but only if you need to.
We really are our own worst enemies when it comes down to vermin control, particularly control of mammals, birds are covered by EU directives and have some measure of protection.
Historically we have a very poor history of self restraint and self regulation when it comes to restrictions on any formsof wildlife control methods and have had to be forced to accept limits on what we do and why we do it.
We make Packhams job stupidly easy.
shakey jake
Well-Known Member
Just get them added to the label on phostoxin, some sets would be off limits but alot could be cleared in one go
Ah the difference is that there’s not many people that want to pay hundreds of pounds to shoot a gold medal badger.
When badgers were first put under protection it wasn’t because they were dying out it was to stop them being dug out and used for baiting, and it’s snowballed to what we have now.
Personally I like to see a badger running about now and again,But not around the cattle and calve sheds.When a badger could be responsible for taking a livelihood away for generations something has to be done.Yes he may not have infected a herd with TB but he’s certainly a factor and if he’s taken out of the equation time will tell.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
Not yet…but the market is ripe for exploitation just as soon as we sort out those ridiculous unnecessary protectionist laws.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
This is the problem in a nutshell, no one wants to see them exterminated, but theres a lot of people who wouldn’t tolerate them on their own personal beat if it wasn’t illegal to interfere with them.
I got as far as "They are slow movers" ................................... you need to get out more & really watch what go's on at night.
Legislation in relation to badgers won't change in our lifetimes or in fact ever.
The "wildlife body" is too strong and the people who want change are too fragmented and marginalised.
Thoose in power and there advisors are clueless and biased . Also to do so would require a huge amount of detailed research and there is no incentive to do so.
D
The "wildlife body" is too strong and the people who want change are too fragmented and marginalised.
Thoose in power and there advisors are clueless and biased . Also to do so would require a huge amount of detailed research and there is no incentive to do so.
D
When I was up in Dumfries & Galloway in early June I sat out on a few evenings watching a badger sett. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them, but I honestly couldn't believe how fast the little critters moved!! I spotted one group of three come along the side of the hill on their way to the sett, and it was a real struggle to keep track of them. I think the perception of them being slow comes from the way they tend to amble across the road as you're bearing down on them.I got as far as "They are slow movers" ................................... you need to get out more & really watch what go's on at night.
I have seen over my four years stint culling them, an amazing turn of speed, they can be very quick on the switch around too, watched a young well grown pair playing tick with each other .... looked closer to 25 mph than sedentary to me.
When they want to they can move very quickly and will hunt rabbits and leveret.
People's idea that they just mill around a sett is too much watching the likes of Springwatch.
On one of my perms there is a very extensive sett in an old slag heap. Hundreds of holes heavily overgrown with steep sides. Extends over 200 yds. You would need a small army to effectively stake it out. Surrounded by deep ditches and hedges. You would loose a fallow in it so no chance of keeping tabs on the occupants.
However if you have a sett on a steep bank with beech tress happy days!
Also doesn't help to have adjacent maize!
Also badgers have remarkable sense of smell and hearing. Eye sight is pretty good as well.
D
People's idea that they just mill around a sett is too much watching the likes of Springwatch.
On one of my perms there is a very extensive sett in an old slag heap. Hundreds of holes heavily overgrown with steep sides. Extends over 200 yds. You would need a small army to effectively stake it out. Surrounded by deep ditches and hedges. You would loose a fallow in it so no chance of keeping tabs on the occupants.
However if you have a sett on a steep bank with beech tress happy days!
Also doesn't help to have adjacent maize!
Also badgers have remarkable sense of smell and hearing. Eye sight is pretty good as well.
D
Nickb
Well-Known Member
No their eyesight is poor, but they certainly can shift.
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