Last weekend, four intrepid badger group members visited Secret World in Somerset, to learn how to handle badgers…..
Saturday afternoon we all arrived from our various campsites more than a little bit excited. We were shown round the rescue centre, where there are hospital, and rehabilitation and finally pre-release pens for birds and animals of all shapes and sizes, and then there was a run through on procedures for picking up injured badgers.
In the evening our contact (an ex Lancashire-ite and lifetime member) fed us and took us on a walk around, showing us the high density of badger populations in the area.
I camped, and the airbed went down as usual….
Early in the morning we put out traps for some of the badgers resident in the rehab pens, as they needed to be checked over.
Next up was a talk on badger injuries and dealing with vets (who might assume a territorial rump wound is much worse than it is) and how they can be treated.
And then onto the actual badgers! First up, Flora. The smallest badger, came in wrapped in a towel. All the orphaned badger cubs that come into Secret World are tb tested prior to release, three times. And if positive once they are euthanased to prevent any potential spread. In 2000 badgers, only 2 have ever been found to be true positive at post mortem. Unfortunately SW’s test has to be super sensitive, and there are a few false positives (healthy badgers) put to sleep.
To minimise stress, little Flora was anaesthetised. Her blood was taken, she was weighed, and then returned to a cage to come round before going back upstairs to her cubby hole.
We were told the badgers we would be handling would be a bit more lively, before being sent off for lunch to chew over that fact and our morning’s excitement……