Game, sett and match

Soldier Palmer considers the conundrum that badgers pose for conservationists

Whenever the newspaper headlines are grabbed by incidents of raptor persecution, it becomes painfully clear that certain individuals within the shooting community need to be weeded out and disposed of. Raptor persecution is rightly pitched as a stain on our sport, but the attention paid to one aspect of conflict in conservation is powerfully overbalanced by the enormity of another. Badgers don't attract the headlines half as much, but our failure to have sensible, meaningful conversations about this species creates a profound divide in the countryside. It's become very clear that we need to talk about badgers.

It's no so long ago that badgers were a rarity in my part of the world. If and when a badger turned up dead on the side of the road, cars would stop to take photographs of it. But in the space of 30 years, badgers are now the most common roadkill you see around these parts.

Perhaps the impression is magnified by the fact that badgers often remain on the roadside more some time after they've died, and very few animals will scavenge the carcasses. In fact, I think the most enthusiastic consumer of badger carcasses is other badgers.

More badgers than foxes

I finally took the plunge and bought a thermal spotting scope last Christmas. It's an amazing piece of kit, and it certainly transforms the way I see the countryside. However, I have been seriously surprised by the number of badgers I've seen on the fields below the house. It's clear that many places now have far more badgers than foxes, and it seems like badgers are actually driving the collapse of foxes in some areas.

It's not so much a matter of direct competition for food or territories, but badgers do hog the best fox earths and fox cubs are often being pressed out into more marginal places. I have seen badgers and foxes share the same holes, but the general rule is that badgers are in charge and foxes are forced to go elsewhere.