Bristol City Council Want To Dig In A Badger Sett Area UPDATE

  APHA and Natural England will take up to 8 days to respond. Bristol City councillors named and holding cabinet positions are all using the old "We cannot reply if you are not in our ward" trick. They all know and have been informed by email and their responses show they have been made aware of the facts so no ducking the issue.

The leader of BCC is also aware so if people in this area are concerned they need to get in touch with him asap Monday morning.

Councillor Tony Dyer is the Leader of Bristol City Council as of May 2024, representing the Southville ward. You can contact him via email at Cllr.Tony.Dyer@bristol.gov.uk. For general council enquiries, call 0117 922 2000 or email customer.services@bristol.gov.uk.

Despite last year's battle to stop a £400K land sell off by Bristol City Council  which resulted in the sale being cancelled I was informed yesterday that a digger was now on site. Bristol City Council tends to ignore notifications and phone calls are never responded to.

In this case I have suggested that any digging starts it should be reported as a wildlife crime since we have no idea how far spread underground setts are and this is cub season. I have removed the exact location for wildlife safety but here are the emails sent out.

​SM-APHA-Customer Advice;​enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk​

Hello.

Despite previously carrying out a survey and informing the relevant members of Bristol City Council that a planned development sell off of land was a long established badger sett area (pre 1970s) and that sell off having been cancelled (knotweed is also prevalent in the area) I was informed on Friday 20^th March that a digger had been moved onto the badger area to "excavate foundations for Bristol City Council".

I have contacted BCC (email attached) senior leaders and explained, again, that digging would disturb badgers (how far underground from setts their tunnels run we do not know) especially as it is now cub season. BCC tends to ignore these notifications and I wanted to make sure that other agencies were aware of what is planned.

My thanks in Advance

Terry Hooper

Bristol Badger Group f 1994

​Councillor Ed Plowden;​Councillor Martin Fodor;​Councillor Heather Mack;​Councillor Susan Whittam;​nick.hibberd@bristol.gov.uk;​Councillor Tony Dyer​

Hello.

Last year there was an attempt to sell off land at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx despite the evidence provided by local residents and I submitted the same evidence to BCC.  The area also has knotweed.

On Friday 20^th March it was reported that a digger had been moved onto the site and the driver when challenged told residents that he was there to "uncover foundations for Bristol City Council "to look at".

I will be forwarding details to Natural England as well as DEFRA to ensure that this activity is noted as I assume that the council has not had any wildlife surveyor check for location of badger setts near to the dig site. Also this is cub season so any such activity can cause great distress to  badgers with cubs.

Badgers and their setts (tunnels, chambers, and entrances) are strictly protected in England and Wales under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, making it a criminal offence to damage, destroy, or obstruct access to a sett, or to disturb a badger while it is occupying one. 

• Exclusion Zones: As a general rule, a 30-metre buffer zone should be established around active badger setts, where no heavy machinery or excavation work should take place.
• Work Distances:
• < 10m: Only hand tools/light work.
• < 20m: Light machinery/digging.
• < 30m: Very heavy machinery.

I have advised locals that since they and Bristol Badger Group have previously identified the area as a long established badger site and informed Bristol City Council of this that if if any work takes place near to setts it is reported to Avon and Somerset Police as a wildlife crime in progress.

I hope BCC will refrain from any digging work especially in cub season.

Terry Hooper

Bristol Badger Group f 1994

Germany is moving toward allowing wolf hunting

The above image went out with the news item and gives the impression of savage and dangerous wolves.

 Typical that hunters/farmers with money and politicians in their pockets should succeed. This will mean many wolves killed as shooters claim "They were a threat to livestock".

Germany is fast losing its reputation for environmental and wildlife conservation.  It is always "re-introduce them" then "Too many -kill them!"

 Germany is moving toward allowing wolf hunting after its lower house of parliament passed a controversial law aimed at managing the country’s growing wolf population.

The decision comes after a sharp increase in wolf numbers over recent decades and a rise in attacks on livestock, which has fueled pressure from farmers and rural communities.

The new legislation would make it easier to shoot wolves, especially in areas where repeated livestock killings occur, marking a major shift from the country’s previous strict protections.

The move has sparked intense debate, with supporters arguing it’s necessary to protect livelihoods, while conservationists warn it could undermine decades of recovery for wolves, which had once been driven to extinction in Germany before making a comeback.

IUCN Needs To Update UK Hedgehog Status

 

On the first night I moved into Risdale Road in Ashton Vale I saw a hedgehog -biggest one I ever saw but was killed a few weeks later by a car. I moved to the current address in 2004 and I have posted regularly on the hedgehogs here.

Last year we were down to one hog and no young as in previous years. Every night the camera is out and no sign of a hog anywhere. I asked my neighbours and they have seen none.

The hope is that, after a lot of private building work along the lane which created a rat problem, the hogs have moved on although they had been nesting in my neighbours and my garden away from the work.

The hope is that the less than likeable council "pest controller" who was putting out rodenticide as not the cause of the demise.

While people reporting hedgehogs seems to make people think hedgehogs are back and the population growing that is a false idea. Hedgehogs are still Red Listed and building development ignoring them as well as cars etc has meant their status is not good.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) should alter the status to Critically Endangered (CR)

Why A Fox Without A Tail is Not Rare

 

 I was  once asked "how did the poor thing lose its tail?" when I posted this image.

The thing is that the fox had a perfectly fine tail but like many foxes was in the habit of curling its tail around one side. To prove the point here is the fox above about one minute later.  Incidentally, the colouration indicates that it has melanism in its make up and this is becoming more common with grey and black coloured foxes being reported.

A few years back (2020/2021?) I was sent a clip and some photos of a fox with no tail. With foxes you expect a quarter or half a tail missing occasionally as they are not fast enough to avoid a car tyre. However, in this particular case the tail was gone.  We call the bones that connect a fox's tail to its body are the caudal vertebrae; these vertebrae are the  direct extensions of the spine, starting from the sacrum (the base of the spine near the hips) and extending down to the tip of the tail. 

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner. A completely tail-less fox.

Foxes can lose parts of tails from cars driving over them, having them caught in something resulting in tail loss or even by having tails caught in a snare and amputating it.

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner; a slight stump can be seen

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner

When I was shown the photographs of the tail-less fox my first thought was that, being that close to the back and so cleanly done that it may have been removed by a veterinary surgeon. There were problems in that vets rarely want to treat a fox let alone amputate a tail and keep it confined until healed.  I could find no vets who had operated on a fox nor any fox released by a wildlife rescue that had had its tail removed.

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner; a fox with a more prominent stub from its missing tail.

Of course, the photographer then noted the fox had always been like this so it had not had a tail -so why ask me if I could explain why its tail was gone?- and had not disappeared for any length of time as per it being trapped, operated on, recovering and then being released. Even now there are people stating "their" fox needs help as it has no tail and want it trapped and treated.

Looking at the photographs available (and we have a large photo image catalogue) it becomes clear that there is a very simple explanation -over-grooming by the mother when the fox was a cub.  A friend of my grand mothers had a dog with no tail and I asked when it had been removed? I was told "the mother did it" and it was explained that the bitch had over-groomed her pups so much the tails came off. I have found similar with domestic cats 

"Excessive maternal behaviour" or "Mismothering" is well known in cats and dogs. That the foxes in question are all fit and healthy and the caudal vertebrae so clean and hair covered seems to indicate the tail loss occurred during its pup stage.

After decades you find that the 'experts' tend to ignore the basics.

Is It A Red or A NARF?

 Back in the 1950s the "big money earner" was going to be fox fur farms. In fact they were being set up back in the 19th century as commercial ventures.

Not very sanitary, often cruel 'entrepreneurs' found things were not as promised. Throughout the early to mid 1950s the fur farms folded. Was there massive blood letting as the unprofitable foxes were all killed? 

The easiest way of getting rid of "stock" you did not want anymore was to just release them. No legislative control over releasing foxes and some land owners probably saw the extra foxes as more 'sporting fun'.

Did these North American Red Foxes (NARF) interbreed with new native Red foxes? Probably. I have shown before photos of over large foxes from parts of the UK that had traits of the NARF. Now of course we have the breeding and escaping Silver fox interbreeding with the Red fox.

What is the size difference between a bred for sale NARF and Red fox? I think the photo below demonstrates that. This image goes back 6 or 7 years and I believe is from a keeper.

(c)2026 respective copyright owner