With the World Cup in full flow you might think this is a football related post. It is and it isn’t. I mean, a football net is definitely involved but the only thing caught up in it is a wild animal.
A few weeks ago, I received a WhatsApp from a friend of mine who was running a Forest School activity at a local school over the May half-term holiday because she’d discovered a badger cub entangled in some netting. At the same time, another friend of mine who Chairs the North East Hampshire Badger Group rang me to say he’d been contacted by someone else from the school about the same animal. We agreed to go and check things out before deciding on a plan of action and arrived on site around 10.30 am. The time is relevant because it was one of those days where the temperature climbed to 34 degrees and the sun was relentlessly bright – not conducive weather or time of day for any badger to be above ground. The photo below shows how hopelessly ensnared it had become.
On arrival, we found that the good folk who had contacted us had carefully cut the netting around the badger and scooped it up into a cat carrier, the only container they had to hand. It had accepted a drink of water but seemed exhausted and was very still. It was definitely one of this years cubs and had clearly worked hard to free itself during the previous night but only managed to worsen its predicament. The netting had become wrapped tightly around its neck and chest with some netting also tangled around it’s back legs.
We decided to leave it in the cat carrier as that would help restrict any movement and the risk of further damage to the badger, and to start carefully cutting away the outer netting so we could get a better look at what we were dealing with. Badger was extremely accommodating throughout this process and didn’t move a muscle. As netting was removed we could see that, thankfully, the animal did not appear to have suffered any lacerations although the cord was fairly tight around its neck and had left superficial marks on its skin. After around 40 minutes of careful snipping the netting fell away although the cub remained very still.
In order to assess whether it had hurt itself in it’s battle with the netting, we encouraged the cub into one of our purpose built badger cages to see how it would react. It immediately began to investigate its new surroundings and, as it ran about the cage, the rest of the netting fell away from its back legs and we were able to remove it from the cage and observe the animal. Other than being tired, dehydrated and confused it appeared to be in good shape. Nothing that a drink, square meal and a few hours of peaceful sleep wouldn’t cure anyway.
Given that it was now approaching midday, and scorching hot, we agreed that I’d take the cub back home with me to offer it some food, water and a cool, dark place to sleep whilst keeping an eye on it with a view to releasing it at dusk close to where it had been discovered. A bowl of dog food and long drink later, the little cub curled up peacefully and slept the afternoon away in a cool, airy environment.
An hour or so before dusk we returned to the school (kindly given out of hours access) and sat together to ensure the animal recognised its surroundings, or the scent of them anyway. It became very excitable and did its best to test the strength and rigidity of the cage. It’s essential that rescued badgers are released as close as possible to where they are found so they can find their own way home to the correct sett. This little creature clearly knew where it was and so I opened the cage for it to return home. After a brief paused it scurried off into the bushes without any hesitation. A very satisfying outcome indeed!
If you’d like to help us out with practical support and become a member of North East Hampshire Badger Group, you can sign up for membership here for the modest amount of £15 per annum (adult) and less for under-18s.
Or you can donate to help us here. Nobody in the group gets paid or even reimbursed for expenses such as petrol. We’re all willing volunteers in every sense. However, we’d like more rescue volunteers and will be happy to train them and loan them a set of rescue kit. The cages alone cost hundreds of pounds so all financial support is extremely welcome. Likes on social media may make you feel good but don’t cut the mustard in the real world.
One last request, please. If you have any old netting, or find any, please cut it into small pieces and put it in a bin. Or I’ll be tempted to do that to you.
Thanks for reading. This week I was out trying to extract an injured badger from beneath someone’s decking. More on that in the next blog.
ecolelogical 