BADGER: mighty burrower needs to keep its head down again

POWERFULLY built, yet shy and elusive, the badger is an animal which sparks almost as much controversy and debate in the countryside as the fox.

Strong claws, big forearms, and a muscular, streamlined body mean the badger is perfectly designed for digging and living unseen underground. Its tendency to exist in large family groups has also added to its ability to thrive despite the urbanisation of much of the country.

Badger baiting - where victims are often maimed even before dogs are let at them for 'entertainment' - has long been a scourge.

But conservationists have been fighting back and most counties now have groups dedicated to protecting badgers, backed up by police and the RSPCA. Unfortunately, badgers are under threat again from official quarters. Renewed fears about tuberculosis being spread from badgers to cattle recently sounded the death knell for up to 20,000 twilight foraging 'brocks'. Protesters, many of whom think badgers are innocent of the TB charge, are appalled that renewed slaughter of these handsome, hardy creatures has become a feature again of the British countryside.

Meanwhile, opinion among scientists themselves remains divided on how much, or even if, badgers are responsible for spreading TB among cattle. But it is quite sad to reflect that some 4,500 badger setts were already wiped out using poisoned gas between 1975 and 1982.

When you consider that an average sett can contain up to 15 animals, parents and cubs, it is easy to imagine the scale of suffering involved. Putting all that aside, it is not difficult to be charmed by a badger.

I have always looked upon them as mini-bears, although they are actually from the same evolutionary tree as stoats and weasels.

Nevertheless, they have many of the same mannerisms as bears and are also omniverous.

"They'll eat almost anything," one seasoned badger watcher, Jean Beach, told me when I called in for a chat."I've taken out lots of different foods over the years, from peanuts to fish heads. They seem to love it all."

Worms are the staple diet yet badgers will also feast on fruit, birds' eggs, and small mammals, including - perhaps less endearingly - baby rabbits, dug from their burrows using those formidable claws.

Jean knew the precise locations of several setts.

However, not surprisingly, these were kept a closely guarded secret. When we spoke, she told me the sows were preparing to give birth so the setts were quieter.

Expectant mums often spent more time underground.

The best time to see badgers is when the youngsters emerge.

This is usually around mid-March, after a female has given birth to two or three cubs, with weaning starting at about 12 weeks.

The last occasion I saw a badger up close myself was not a happy experience.

It was curled up beside a road, very quiet and still...dead, in fact.

Road accidents do account for a large number, usually males roaming the land in search of new territories.

But roadside corpses can also have a more sinister history.

An RSPCA inspector told me that badger baiters occasionally disposed of the evidence this way, giving a false impression of how the animal met its end and preventing any awkward inquiries.

A carefully placed tyre tread might even reinforce the deception.

I was pretty certain the badger I found had not been baited as a close examination revealed no tooth marks.

It had few visible wounds on it at all so I think it must have died slowly from internal injuries, which seemed just as pitiful.