When I drove to work on Wednesday there was another dead badger on the road through the woods on the outskirts of the village, almost exactly the same spot as the casualties of October last year and April this year. I had a train to catch so I couldn’t stop to check the sex, but it looked fully grown. When I came home at the end of the day it had been moved from the road (hopefully just onto the verge, but you hear odd rumours of people taking dead badgers away. I don’t even want to think what for…)
This makes three badgers in a year killed here, almost certainly from the same sett. I hope the sett is big enough to withstand the losses. It must be a fairly active one – I’ll have to see if I can locate it when I get time.
So it goes…
I’m aware that anyone visiting this site will be confronted by depressingly regular tales of dead badgers. I’m sorry about this. It isn’t my intention to focus on unpleasant matters just for the sake of it. What I want to do is to build up an archive of badgers in my local patch. By recording the road casualties here in my diary (and I only include the ones in or immediately around my village), it means that I’m saving the information. Perhaps it is just the scientist in me, instinctively collecting data, but in years to come it may reveal a pattern. Nevertheless, if we get many more road deaths I may need to find a less public way to record them.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
A roadkill badger has a swift painless death, mostly males, I entirely agree about dwelling on bad news but it shows how much you care…usually it is other animals who clean up in natures own way, meat is food
😦
Sad but the way of the world I guess. The Buzzards and the rooks will benefit.
As it happens, I passed a dead badger this morning on the way in to town. It was straddled over the crown of the road and had obviously been run over by a wheel, not simply hit by the undercarriage – not a pretty sight.
At least any cubs should be self sufficient by now but it still hits home.
This was a new location for badger roadkill so there must be a sett close by. I’ll take note and have a wee scouting expedition at a later date.
John
The harsh reality of life for the Badger, the car, unfortunately the indescriminate nemesis more than any other single factor.
I get sick of seeing them lining the verges. I may have already said in an earlier reply that we lost an erythristic boar this spring. Very rare as to be virtually unrecorded in this district.He was a yearling and living away from the main Sett. We had photos of him as a cub last year and I was due to get Video of him [in good light]just before the phone call. Later that month I lost the breeding Sow from a small Sett that was locally road locked, leaving the Cub [weaned] and the Boar. I hope another Sow finds its way safely there.
It could well be that your local Badger group or RSPCA were called and they removed the carcass.Or a well meaning motorist lobbed it into the bushes. A good idea as shady types sometimes rely on roadkill to direct them to a Sett.
Its also not a good idea to drive around with one in your boot unless you have legit reason to. Several years ago most of our Badger roadkill was sent off to MAFF for testing for TB.
As you say, morbid though it may be, it can be interesting from a study/recording perspective.
I would certainly go and check out the Sett and try to find out the reason they cross that particular place in the road.
It is sad, I agree, particularly when the badger in question is a known individual.
The only sight of a badger that most people get is a body by the side of the road. The problem is that they seem to have very little road sense. I once saw a badger crossing the slip road for the M1. I only hope that it didn’t try and cross the other six lanes!
It is true that road casualties do provide information about the number and distribution of animals, particularly shy ones. The extent of polecats, for instance, has been mapped by carcasses on roads. A friend of mine once saw a dead wallaby by the side of the road as he drove into work, which must rank as one of the strangest road casualties I’ve heard of.
Incidentally, I came across a dead animal on the road outside the village that from its fur looked very polecat-like. It didn’t look like a rabbit or squirrel or any of the usual suspects. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop and when I came back it had been reduced to an unidentifiable mush. Still, it is a tantalising possibility.
I live with the hope that one day, in response to the environmental pressure of road accidents, badgers and other wildlife will evolve the ability to cross roads safely. In the meantime, hopefully I won’t have to report too many more incidents.
i came across your webpage whilst googling for autumn images,what a fantastic site,i,v submitted my e-mail address, keep up the good work. mike.