A fascinating insight into the badger’s world. Badger biology, life in the sett, rescue & rehabilitation, consultancy, badgers & farming, and badger-watching with George Pearce, an expert on badgers who has surveyed over 700 sites.

A fascinating insight into the badger’s world. Badger biology, life in the sett, rescue & rehabilitation, consultancy, badgers & farming, and badger-watching with George Pearce – an expert on badgers.

George has surveyed over 700 sites, visited 1,500 setts, been consulted as an expert in 120 animal cruelty cases and rehabilitated more than 100 badgers. Brought up on a farm, he earned his living as a farmer for 45 years. Today, he is a badger consultant and one of the foremost experts on the British mammal he admires the most.

For many years, the RSPCA, police, veterinary surgeons and conservation groups all over the country have relied on George Pearce’s knowledge and his instinctive feel for animal behaviour. Now you can share in his experience and enthusiasm for badgers from his 70 years of badger watching and his vast professional wildlife experience.

Introduction

1. A lifetime’s experience

Marooned: a bundle of badgers

2 .Badger biology

Scented signposts; What’s on the menu?; Follow the tracks; Clues in the latrines; Spoilheaps: mountains of information

3. The world of the sett

Secret world of the sett; Tunnels: DIY larders Reproduction Head over heels – but it gave me a clue

4. Badgers in the family

Badgers – every one a character; Hiya, captivating Hiya; Bodger, the one and only Bodger

5. Badger rescue

Road victim with a sad secret; Road victims: what you should do; A badger in a sack and the owl that wheezed; Help them, but don’t hang on to them

6. Badger consultancy

Ducks’ legs and raindrops; Makeway, makeway; Have they read the book?; Some of the things I am asked to do; You name it, they’ll dig there; Sett closures and artificial setts; Tackling the big jobs

7. Badgers and farming

Too much muscle; “Killed a hundred, he’ as”; Carry on farming!; Bovine tuberculosis (bTB); Badgers and bTB

8. Badger-watching

Sett-watching tips; Sit quietly!; The weather; Feeding badgers ; Seeing in the dark; Hides

9. Final thoughts

Useful contacts

Index