Britain's Badger Problem

I hear that the UK is having trouble with, is it badgers? Yes, it is and they look like this.

Britain's largest surviving carnivore.

Here is a link to read about the problem.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/01/badger-cull-britains-largest-carnivore

Apparently, this is a long-standing situation and, predominantly, it seems that farmers and rural folk are having the most difficulty.

Celebrities have become involved. Lead guitarist for the rock band, Queen, Brian May, is championing badger rights and with some success. He has written at least one column for The Guardian and is leading the fray to save the badger.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/oct/23/badger-reprieve-abandon-cull

For a balanced read on the subject, Hugh Warwick in his review in The Guardian of Patrick Barkham's recently released book, Baderlands, is a good place to start.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/27/badgerlands-patrick-barkham-review

We don't have badgers in this region of Canada, except for the small ferret-type that are often kept as pets. However, we too have problems with wildlife, some of which I have been outlining over the last several weeks.

So when I read about the situation with badgers in England, and there was a call for input from the public, I sent a brief story about problems with urban raccoons. And I included the photo of the raccoon in my bathtub taken during the summer. You may recall this photo.

There is a similarity, except the stripes go in opposite directions.

I just thought that Britain's got badgers killing hedgehogs and, ostensibly, playing a role in the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

We have raccoons within city limits with no natural predators, breeding willy-nilly, with the threat of spreading noxious diseases through their feces to people and to domestic animals.

We  have no cull, no vaccination plan, no discussion of how to deal with the problem.
In short, we have nothing.

Wild Turkeys, The Video

Making their video debut, the wild turkeys of Almonte, Ontario, Canada. There are five males, gobblers, they are called. The flock will grow to include up to 15 females and three of the males will leave in search of their own harem, or being young, they may hover on the perimeter of the flock and wait for their opportunity to hive a few hens away for their own in a year or two.

Raccoon Having a Late Supper

I suspect that this raccoon was hand-raised as a kit and then released to this neighbourhood. He is too comfortable with the cats and house. Sometimes, he comes in and does not even eat; he just wants to be in the house. Last night, at around 5:00 am, I think he snuck in and enjoyed roaming around. He may have wandered into my bedroom and, discovering my hand over the side of the bed, started nipping on my fingers. I woke to sharp teeth nipping my finger tips. It could have been my cat but he's never done something such as this before and when I woke with a start, something hightailed it out of the bedroom and made for the cat door. 

Look Who Dropped In

Through the cat door! Go figure!

Not a Squirrel!

Hello and thank-you for your continued attention to this blog. Squirrels continue to play a huge role in my life, especially now since several of the cunning rodents have discovered the cat door with a swinging hard plastic entrance and they are coming into the house and helping themselves to my larder!

When I arrived home today at noon, something whipped past me as I was putting my key in the door. It was not a cat; I would recognize my cats, of which I have three. And it was not a raccoon. Coons are a huge problem but they stick to the evening hours and are rarely seen during the day.

I shall monitor the situation but if it persists, my cats will have to knock to be let in and let out.

A-hunting I Will Go for Raccoons

Love the ARMADILLO!

Cute coons in the bath tub aside, a couple nights ago, I was wakened four times by as many raccoons, one young one in my bedroom who was as surprised to see me as I was to see it. It let out an EEK and headed for the living room and right out the cat door.

There is an adult who comes in and this coon is not destructive. It appears to be a male, large, matted and with a wild, musky smell. However, he does not tear things apart. He simply eats the cat kibble and then sleeps on the window ledge until mid-morn and then heads to his real home. It's the young ones that can destroy an apartment within an hour.

And so I have invested in a Havahart live animal trap and will be catching and releasing...soon. 

A Wild Life Day Today

What to do with urban coons who think that they are domesticated?  This beast comes in every night through the cat door. If you have outdoor cats, you know that there's no keeping them in and conversely, there's no keeping out the coons.

This painted turtle turned up miles from water in a rural back yard. He eventually escaped his confines and headed under the sun deck.