MOST birds do it, bees certainly do it, yet even the most educated flea doesn’t do it. What’s that? Well, design and build their own des-res. As with humans, an animal’s home is its castle, a place of shelter and security in which to live and raise the brood. If a beast’s, bird’s or bug’s abode is primarily a sanctuary for survival of the species, the scale and complexity of animal architecture must make even Norman Foster and Richard Rogers go jade-eyed.
It is fitting that Britain’s oldest landowner, Brock the badger, excavates its manor home in the very earth of the isles. Badgers, with their short limbs and sharp claws, are born to dig; indeed, the animal’s name is likely derived from the French bêcheur, meaning digger. I once saw a badger mining a new entrance to its family home or sett; dirt flew as the badger bored into the earth, furry limbs working furiously, at the rate of a yard every five minutes. Venerable badgers sometimes have their hind claws almost completely worn away from constant use.
Brock’s setts are maintained and enlarged over many years, handed down through the generations of Meles meles. An old, established sett can contain more than 300 yards of tunnels, on two or more levels, with a dozen doorways to the outside. This is preferably a quiet woodland slope. A badger sett in use will often have a tell-tale spoil heap from the latest round of DIY. Or a bundle of used bedding outside the entrance. Or new bedding of bracken and grass awaiting. Badgers like a tidy house.
Denne historien er fra August 09, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 09, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds