Badger?

I'm struggling to work out scale as well.... Do any of your neighbours have a Maine Coon cat? I get an impression of lots of fur. It may remain a mystery until the next video

Thats as good as I can make it. Does look cat like, can just about make out a pointy shape which could be an ear..

In settings on YouTube you can slow videos down to quarter speed, still a very brief view but the way it moves and Jez’s image say Badger to me.

PimperneBloke said:

Oh, Mike, fancy not recognising a Musk Ox when you see one!!
It looks too "lumbering" to be a fox,, I would plump for badger, but I've never seen one in the "real world" only via TV

Doh!

How silly of me, it was a Musk Ox! 

The general consensus seems to be badger, not just here, but from other sources as well.

Germain said:

I'm struggling to work out scale as well.... Do any of your neighbours have a Maine Coon cat? I get an impression of lots of fur. It may remain a mystery until the next video

Not that I'm aware of.

We have a regular four cats that visit the garden, and they do look like cats.

First, thank you to everyone for the suggestions offered.

It seems badger is the most likely, though where they would be inhabiting is beyond me, with being such an urban environment. Time will tell if there are more, though I don't expect to see any further sightings.

I've spent a lot of time studying the video, frame by frame, and I feel probably the best id point is the very start, the first frame, which I screen grabbed and processed through Photoshop.

I would also add that the processing may also have superimposed some pixels, but it does look more like a badger to me.

Mike - Badgers tend to stick to their regular paths so throw a handful of peanuts out every night and wait for him to turn up again.

ouzel said:

Mike - Badgers tend to stick to their regular paths so throw a handful of peanuts out every night and wait for him to turn up again.

I did look at what we could feed badgers, which is similar to foxes, and some local cats would enjoy as well.

I would love to see badgers more, though I'm not so sure some immediate neighbours might. I have contacted the local council, because were are very urban and basically locked in by concrete and bricks, though there is a small wooded area, that is also a dumping ground for a nearby council estate, but there could be potential badger sets there. After that, its a good distance before any further greenery.

That, or, its escaped, and I'm tempted to feel it could be an escapee

Someone did mention not being able to guess the height. I've since measured the daffs, which tower at 45.7cms (18"), and the netting over the pond is 28cms approx (11" approx). My guess, the animal would be around 30 - 33 cms (11.8-12.7 ins).

It all fits with badger.

BTW, on a humorous note, a former colleague, who is aware of the squirrel situation we've had, did suggest giant grey squirrel, with squashed legs after eating too much bird seed. However, he fully agrees, badger