Lucky Badger (2 Viewers)

[SpeedyDux]

On early Sunday morning at about 1 am I was driving homewards along the local by-pass.

Suddenly a badger ran across the road just in front of the car and I slammed on the brakes ... eeek ... saw him disappear so close to the front bonnet of the car that he was out of view ... I am pretty certain that I didn't hit him but it was a very, very, near miss.

I didn't see anything in the rear mirrors except a cop car that overtook me shortly after. He must have seen my emergency stop.

Wildlife! One dead badger is one roadkill too many. I would have felt so guilty if I had harmed the poor creature. Probably did scare it somewhat. I hope it did learn something about road traffic.


[NB The camera at the top of the windscreen that is supposed to react to pedestrians trying to cross missed seeing the badger altogether so on this occasion the automatic collision avoidance/mitigation system wasn't triggered.]

 

[Ejaydee]

I am pretty sure you would have known if you had hit him. I regrettably hit and killed one in Ireland many years ago, when like yourself, it just shot out in front of me. The loud bang as it hit the front valance I will never forget.

 

[Lisa]

On a serious note, we have a local badger group and we always report any deceased badgers so that they can check them out and document them. They are persecuted unnecessarily and some people shoot or poison them and dump them at the side of the road to make it look like an RTC.

Glad your badger made it to safety.

 

[Spriddler]

It really upsets me whenever I see any wild animal dead at the roadside due to our intrusion into their environment.
I often see dead wildlife on the bypass that has recently torn through 2 miles of woods and farmland, felling trees and destroying hedgerows and the stream where I had dog walked more or less every day for over 40 years and knew every badger sett, fox and rabbit hole and woodpecker nesting tree. Now it's just desolate and devoid of any peace and beauty.

 

[meanders]

Yes unfortunately I hit one under similar circumstances about 10 years ago in the next village. It cost me a lot of money to have the damage to the car repaired. It split the balance. You would know if you had hit it.

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[PP Bear]

I’m so glad it was a near miss, they’re one of our great countries hero’s and our wildlife, I hate the very thought of a badger getting injured in any way , mind you I hate the thought of any animal being injured and especially hate the shooting season

Also I can’t understand why the authorities that grant the building of new roads, can’t have the developers incorporate some form of tunnel system that goes under these roads, even every mile, so the poor creatures that have now been effected by us tearing great big swaths of tarmac across their land and homes, can then use them and travel safely on their way.

As a kid we used the ones built under the M1 to travel from one side to the other as the motorway divided our woods and the streams and ponds we used to play around, and without the need to dart across 6 lanes and a central reservation, exactly what we would have done being youngsters and indestructible

Mind you, the woods, streams and ponds have long since gone and all I can see is houses and flats, built right up to the side of the motorway. We lived a good 200 metres from it and the drone was terrible back then, so goodness knows what it will be like now.

 

[meanders]

We get them and other wildlife in the garden. Apologies for the quality but worth watching to the end. https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNu-H7k7YJEIGBQboOWcrSExVsInl8MCXbzr-CT. That was about 15 feet from the nearest part of the house and 25ft from our bedroom window.

We also see hares, foxes, partridges, jays and both types of woodpecker amongst other creatures.

 

[jumartoo]

We get them and other wildlife in the garden. Apologies for the quality but worth watching to the end. https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNu-H7k7YJEIGBQboOWcrSExVsInl8MCXbzr-CT. That was about 15 feet from the nearest part of the house and 25ft from our bedroom window.

We also see hares, foxes, partridges, jays and both types of woodpecker amongst other creatures.

Can't see it. Not available. That's all Google knows

 

[gus-lopez]

As said,you'd definitely know if you had hit the badger.

 

[meanders]

Can anyone else see my linked video? Works fine here on the phone, laptop or tower! If need be I will download it from Google and then upload it!

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[meanders]

 

[jumartoo]

View attachment 927959

Wow. I can see it now. Springwatch eat your heart out

 

[pappajohn]

You would know if you hit it.
Badgers are just muscle on legs and don't bounce off.

 

[Viennese]

Seeing a l[ve badger is on my bucket list

 

[meanders]

We get them in the garden most of the autumn and winter nights. We have a rather useless apple tree that produces an really not that pleasant to eat and has more windfalls than anything picked, The Badgers love them and also any peanuts the birds have left. Noisy feeders though.

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[Bobbejaan]

Unfortunately, Badgers are a Three-Edged Sword.

Edge 1 ... There are MANY around our area, and I am always sad to see one dead by the side of the road, and you couldn't fail to notice if you ever hit one as they are essentially built like a Brick Shithouse on stumpy legs, and they tend to be fearless and would think nothing of charging head-on at a car in their "territorial zone".

Edge-2 ... Quite a few years ago, we had an upsetting incident in the field immediately behind my house/plot ..... Where one (or possibly more) badgers attacked a whole flock of sheep in the field and ripped the throat out of seven of them ..... I reported the dead sheep & had a long discussion with the sheep farmer as I was concerned that he might try to blame our "cowardly-custard" dogs ..... and he told me not to worry as he knew it had to be badgers from the bite marks, and that badgers will sometimes attack a flock of sheep for no real reason other than BADGER-FUN.

Edge-3 ... A year or two later in the middle of the dead-of-night, our dogs were going ballistic and we could hear dogs & gunshots and see cars screaming around in the same field .... We phoned the farmer, and he told us that there was a gang of badger baiters/hunters going around the area ..... He contacted all the other local farmers and within minutes, it was like a keystone cops hanging posse of farmers chasing the badger hunters around the field ..... Going by the broken fences and pool of sump-type oil we saw the next day, we suspect the hunters may have killed one of their 4x4s trying to escape.

 

[meanders]

About 15 years ago we woke in the night to see bright red lights and howling dogs in the field behind us. "Lampers" from the East End. A call to 999 followed as at the time I had no idea what was going on. At the time the police helicopter was based at Wattisham just over a mile away by air. No escaping that and they were picked up by the police two villages away. They had driven the badgers out of the sette and had killed several.