Badger stopped play

christopher

New member
last night I decided to put a couple of hours into a dig I've been doing on  / off now  for a while, in the past I have noticed evidence of badgers but fortunately never encountered one, then last night after about 20 minutes of working away a faint  clicking / chirping sound started, it was hard to make out exactly where it was coming from.  It took a while to register but when I did realise it could be a badger I got out pretty sharpish as I was working in a body sized tube.

After looking on line it seems they only attack if cornered or directly provoked, has anyone had any experience, or faced anything similar in a dig ? thanks
 

bograt

Active member
History repeating itself- I had a similar experience in the Peak District whilst pushing an unexplored section. The memory of those teeth and claws a few feet in front of your face does stay with you---- its surprising how fast you can crawl backwards flat out---. luckily it was just as surprised as I was and stayed where it was. This was back in the sevenies but the memory does not fade!!
 

Bob Mehew

Well-known member
I recall some decades ago wriggling along high up in a rift passage entrance to suddenly look down upon two badgers running along at a lower level.  I presumed that they were making their way to an alternative entrance.  I thought briefly about finding that entrance but then remembered it was against the law to disturb a badger so I retreated.   

By the way, "damaging a badger sett or any part of it" is also a specific criminal offence (Sec 3(1) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992).  So until you can prove your dig / badger's set is deserted, you have a cast iron excuse for not digging.
 

Leclused

Active member
I often find traces of badgers (and foxes) in our digs. As well in Belgium as in France. I always keep the skulls when I find their remains, badger skulls often have the lower jaw still attached because the jaw joint of a badger is not allowing that the lower jaw falls off.  That makes them mostly for 95% complete.

During a solo exploration trip (in 2013) I encountered a living badger when I was making my way down on a slope I suddenly saw something moving around.

I grabbed my camera and .... here is the result :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqn28b0pgg2tg6v/Boveningang%20das.wmv?dl=0

Dagobert
 

Leclused

Active member
The clips starts after I had seen the badger a first time. The badger walked 2-3M from me looked up and continued. It was then that I knew that the badger didn?t felt threathend by me. So I decided that I could reach for my camera and film this beautiful animal.
 

Wolfo

Member
I once got attacked by a badger in a very tight old mine entrance dig.
No way to turn, pushed him back with my pick a couple of times while crawling back. Fucking screams.
 

Subpopulus Hibernia

Active member
Some mates of mine were attacked by a badger while crawling flat-out into in a cave in Ireland in the 90s. The leading caver had to bash it back with an ammo box while crawling backwards to escape.

There's also a cave in Ireland that the Moldywarps found called Rock Badger Cave, after a rock that looked like a crouching badger caused a panicked retreat from the entrance.
 

Cave_Troll

Active member
A long time ago, i beleive someone in the club read the journal of a victorian gentleman caver who

"came face to face with a badger. So i took out my revolver and shot it"
 

Leclused

Active member
A bit off topic but in one of my previous posts I mentioned that when I find animal skulls during digging I bring them out. So I thought lets share some of my finds :)

The first overview pictures shows the different kind of animals that I've found over the years : Wild Boar, Roe Deer, Dog or Wolf, Dog, Domestic Cat, Wild Cat, Fox, 3 Badger skulls and finally a 2nd fox skull. I did found a lot more but I give them away to young collectors or teachers (Biology)

The 2nd picture show a badger skull with open jaw where you can see that the jaw is still connected.
 

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Fulk

Well-known member
Very interesting, Leclused. I assume that they're all from different sites ? or was there one place with a whole lot of skulls?
 

Leclused

Active member
Fulk said:
Very interesting, Leclused. I assume that they're all from different sites ? or was there one place with a whole lot of skulls?

Yep, most of them come from different digsites in Belgium and France.

However I known one small cave in Belgium where multiple skulls can be found (+50). But most likely this is a hunters dump where they have dumped the skulls and other remains via a pit after the animals where shot. This is a practice which is still done sometimes. Also in France there are several cave entries where you can find dumped animals (mostly wild boar).

Dagobert
 

Leclused

Active member
I just dived into my picture archive and looked up some pics of the hunters dump in that small Belgian Cave. Just to give you an idea of what can be found. In the 1st picture with different skulls I've arranged them in the picture. When we where there we cleaned up the cave from all debris.
 

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