It comes as no surprise to me that the recent results of the RSPB’s Make You Nature Count survey showed that badgers were the least spotted mammal in gardens across the east. They are a secretive lot it seems, their general demeanour never described more eloquently than by Kenneth Grahame in his masterful novel, The Wind in the Willows; ‘The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about the place.’ My first badger encounter came when, living as I did in a house backed by an ancient wood, my friends and I would play amongst the trees, making dens and living wild. The woodland was mainly a mixture of oak, ash and lime but if you ventured further to the periphery you would find yourself amongst the lofty statues of the pines.

There is a silence to pine trees like no other. Perhaps it was the muffling effect of the pine-needle carpet under foot or the vastness of the trees’ height, but either way these woods seemed like an other-worldly place. This being so, it seems only natural, looking back, that this would be where I would first stumble across the mysterious world of the badger.

I was on my own that afternoon, ambling and passing the time, the pine trees providing a refuge from a brisk autumnal wind. I remember sitting with my back against a sandy bank, wondering what animal might have dug the fantastic network of runs and burrows, hollowed from the sandy ridge running away from my vantage point. That’s when he appeared, from the gloom of the woods at dusk, the thick-set form of a badger trotting nimbly back towards his sett. This creature knew his business, but didn’t very much mind about anybody else’s. He seemed self-contained and composed and I felt incredibly lucky to have been privileged with even the most fleeting encounter; almost the moment I saw him, the badger had disappeared back to his underground world.

Recently the issue of badgers and their connection to Bovine Tuberculosis has been back in the news. Bovine TB is a significant and serious disease for the cattle industry already causing considerable distress for farmers who have lost their herds. For this reason and many others, the RSPB is calling on Government to base its policy on combating this disease on sound science. Detailed scientific trials suggest that the culling of badgers is not a practical or cost effective approach to reducing Bovine TB in cattle. However trialling biosecurity measures and vaccination could provide information on how this disease can be combated in the future. For the sake of both our farmers and our badger’s fingers crossed for swift action and swift answers.