British Badgers: HOW Did They Survive When Wolves, Foxes and Wild Cats Could Not? Original Research

 

Just in case anyone thinks that financial insolvency is being used by me to cop out of continuing wildlife research....

I have written many -many- times that Lupicide wiped out British wolves. Felicide wipe out Old British wild cats. Vulpicide wiped out Old British fox types. And Melecide wiped out badger populations in various parts of England.

Wild cats I have absolutely no doubt were imported from the European continent and The Red Paper 2022: Felids looks at this. It is why we have the Wild Tabby Cat in Scotland. The importing of foxes from Europe is why we still have foxes. The same applies to hares as well as deer -extinct in certain areas so more were imported for hunting.

But what about the badger? How has the native badger survived when the native fox did not? The old hunt books will tell you that badgers were gentle and caused no trouble -but they were still hunted and baited for 'fun' (still going on in 2022). Adults and cubs were slaughtered for fun and bounties placed on them -each head fetching a fair price at the time while cub heads only got a half bounty. In areas on Cumbria and the English-Scottish border area they were "successfully removed" due to the "great work and effort of locals".

Again -how did British badgers survive and become more widespread when Reynard could not?

I had a theory. I have mentioned it in private to people I work with such as Hayley De Ronde and LM, but a theory needs evidence or a paper trail. I spent a year looking in old books and even the works of Ernest Neal who was the expert on modern badgers -nothing. My theory had a lot going for it and I was not willing to throw it away since nothing else made sense.

Last week I tried archival searches and expected to come up with nothing.

I proved my theory!

Yes, I now know why British badgers survived and became more numerous and not just in woodland but even urban areas. Not one source. Not two. Not three but several.

I need to write this up before I make it all public as the last thing I want is to have original work stolen and used uncredited by others after I spent years working on it. Why badgers survived may well surprise a lot of people and, again, unique and original  research that no one else has bothered with.

If only this earned me money!