Fork It!
A while ago I wrote that I was having trouble with all things furry and unfortunately I can now add moles and badgers to the mammalian invasion. Neat mounds of earth – reduced to a fine tilth by the mole’s long claws – have appeared in the orchard opposite us, getting nearer and nearer the gate. Moles are bad news for gardeners, as not only do their excavations cause havoc with the appearance of lawns, but they also eat the earthworms which are essential for a healthy soil. So far the mole seems to have stopped at the orchard gate and hopefully is not tunnelling under the road, although this is quite feasible, as their tunnels can be a metre deep and their immensely powerful front feet can shift about 6kg of soil in 20 minutes.
Unlike the moles, the badgers have crossed the road, as my husband saw one waiting at our gate one evening as he was driving out. My husband is not generally given to anthropomorphic musings, but he said that the badger seemed quite unafraid of the car, looked straight at him as if to say “Hurry up” and then trotted in through our gate! This insouciance with regard to vehicles is unfortunately the downfall of many badgers – as 50,000 annual roadside corpses testify – and seems at odds with their general timidity towards humans. As a wholly nocturnal mammal, they are rarely seen and have been the subject of many myths, the oddest being a medieval belief that their right legs are longer than their left, so that they can walk easily round hillsides!
Having read more about badgers I now realise that there were signs that we had a sett in the vicinity. There are well-worn paths radiating out across the orchard, along which they must trundle each night looking for food and it solves the mystery of why all the windfall apples disappeared this year. There are usually lots of tiny ones too small for commercial purposes lying on the ground in winter, as I have always used them for decorating Christmas wreaths, but this year they had all gone. And it’s not just fruit that they like, as badgers put the omnis (Latin for all) into omnivore as they really do eat everything – nuts, frogs, slugs, worms, birds’ eggs, fungi, even wasps’ nests.
Badgers are very unpopular with beef and dairy farmers as they suffer from and almost certainly transmit bovine TB to cattle. Protected under various Acts of Parliament they have complete immunity from persecution, but as the badger population has reached an estimated quarter of a million, there are controversial plans for experimental culls.
As a gardener, I am ambivalent about the presence of badgers. Their sett is far enough away not to be a problem and there is no evidence in the garden of the pits they make as communal latrines. However, I know that these powerful diggers can cause damage to lawns and borders in their quest for worms and other food and that the rabbit-proof fencing would not be strong enough to keep them out. Hopefully Brock the badger will not make himself unwelcome!
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