The Enid Blyton Society

Sadly, we do see quite a few dead badgers on Sussex country roads. Such a shame to see such a beautiful animal mown down in this way.

Now you mention it, I have seen one or two dead badgers by the road.

I have seen a hedgehog just once, when at the care home where I work, we had a talk from a lady who looks after hedgehogs — she takes in ones that were born too late in the year to be able to build up enough body fat to survive hibernation over the winter. (She just keeps them indoors over winter and feeds them, then releases them back into the wild in spring.) She brought one of her hedgehogs along to show us — so cute!! I love the way they can roll into a ball (as this one did, when he saw how many people were trying to look at him).

I've also seen plenty of koalas, possums, kangaroos and echidnas in my time (never a platypus yet, though), but that's another matter!

A few years ago there were quite a few dead badgers lying on the side of the road not far from where we live, on a main country road that leads to Warwick. It turned out that they had actually been killed by people/farmers and dumped on the road to look as if they'd been run over.

Oh, that's horrible. Even though I've never seen a live one, I have a soft spot for badgers. There was a novel I read years ago — The Cold Moons by Aeron Clement — which was very like Watership Down, only about badgers rather than rabbits (in this case, the badgers are fleeing destruction at the hands of humans because of the fear that they're spreading bovine TB... I was horrified when I came to Britain and discovered that badger culling is still going on for that exact reason ).

Anyway, ever since I read that book, I've wanted to see some real badgers! I discovered quite recently that there's a British Wildlife Centre not all that far from me (near the Surrey/Sussex border), so that's probably the easiest option. (Plus there are plenty of other creatures they have there that I'd also love to see — otters, for example.)

Rob Houghton wrote:A few years ago there were quite a few dead badgers lying on the side of the road not far from where we live, on a main country road that leads to Warwick. It turned out that they had actually been killed by people/farmers and dumped on the road to look as if they'd been run over.

This is happening more frequently than people realise, Rob. Farmers solely blame Badgers for the spread of Bovine tb to their cattle & accuse them of being the main cause of outbreaks, taking the law into their own hands & killing Badgers illegally. I could go on all night about the facts & myths of the disease, but I won't. All the appropriate info can be found on the Badger Trust website, if anyone is interested. Any dead Badgers found by the roadside should be reported to the Badger Trust, noting the time, day & location, or the Police if it looks suspicious. Sorry for going off on one, but someone needs to speak out & take a stand against blatant cruelty to a protected species!

Aha, I didn't know about the Badger Trust — here's their info page on the facts and myths, as you say. This isn't off topic at all as far as I'm concerned; it's about "nature", and it's an issue I'm sure Enid would have cared about if it had been going on in her day!

number 6 wrote:

Rob Houghton wrote:A few years ago there were quite a few dead badgers lying on the side of the road not far from where we live, on a main country road that leads to Warwick. It turned out that they had actually been killed by people/farmers and dumped on the road to look as if they'd been run over.

This is happening more frequently than people realise, Rob. Farmers solely blame Badgers for the spread of Bovine tb to their cattle & accuse them of being the main cause of outbreaks, taking the law into their own hands & killing Badgers illegally. I could go on all night about the facts & myths of the disease, but I won't. All the appropriate info can be found on the Badger Trust website, if anyone is interested. Any dead Badgers found by the roadside should be reported to the Badger Trust, noting the time, day & location, or the Police if it looks suspicious. Sorry for going off on one, but someone needs to speak out & take a stand against blatant cruelty to a protected species!

I'm sure it goes on all over the UK.

I can remember the badgers we saw were always lying on the grass verge or in the gutter, and always looked fairly 'intact' - not at all like they'd been hit by cars or run over...and once there were about five badgers within a couple of miles, which seemed suspicious. This was years ago...about 10 years ago...and we didn't think of reporting it at the time - then a few weeks after that it was reported on the local news that people had been arrested for doing it.

What a shame, Rob! Badgers lying by the road that have no obvious collision impact, should be viewed as suspicious & reported. However, I'm not going to rant on because I feel this isn't the right place to do so & I don't want formites feeling uncomfortable. Thanks for posting your story.

On a lighter note...Traffic congestion at Burley in the New Forest.

Wonderful photo, Number 6. Did you take it?

I did, Eddie. It was taken on my I-pad, which is why it's not perfect. The clouds look dramatic & stormy, but in fact it was a lovely hot day!

I've been officially adopted by a Grey Squirrel!! The little fluff-ball has been visiting my garden since this Spring. It started off as just feeding him monkey nuts on the bird table, now taking food out of my hand! He actually comes bounding up to me if I whistle! If I'm not around, then he'll sometimes sit on the small bench seat when it's feeding time & looks through the conservatory window to grab my attention! However, I'm not attempting to tame him. It's his choice to approach me. There was no real encouragement. He's still very much wild & runs a mile from other people. He definitely knows which side his bread is buttered, for sure! What a little star!

Sounds lovely, Number 6!

That’s great, Number 6.

We often get grey squirrels in our garden, but we’ve never been adopted by any of them.

Lovely! We always have grey squirrels and we feed them monkey nuts etc, and some become quite tame. Last year we had a squirrel who would come right up to the window and look in, with his paws on the ledge (actually its a door with glass right to the floor) and he would chatter and jump around, bobbing his head up and down comically as he looked in the window, to attract our attention! He used to take food out of my dad's fingers if he offered him a monkey nut. We don't have any that seem that bold and friendly this year though.