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Earthstopping and the emergence of badgers
Journal
Biological
Conservation - Volume
34, Issue 4 , 1985, Pages 289-306
Authors
I. M. Lindsay and D. W. Macdonald from the
WildCRU at Oxford University
Abstract
Eurasian badgers are widespread on English farmland where they may be
affected by various human activities, amongst which is the practice of
‘earthstopping’ by foxhunts. This practice is described in detail, and involves
blocking the entrances to badger setts in order to prevent the escape therein of
hunted foxes. A questionnaire survey indicates that earthstopping is practised
on 30·8% of English farms and that in some areas most badger setts are routinely
stopped 4–5 times during the winter foxhunting season. Setts were monitored and
badgers radio-tracked in an investigation of the consequences of stopping for
their behaviour. The time of nightly emergence from the sett was found to be
negatively correlated with minimum nightly temperature, and badgers rarely
emerged at all on nights when the temperature fell to − 1°C or below. When
subjected to stopping the badgers postponed their emergence times and did not
emerge at all on some nights when, on the basis of the temperature, they would
otherwise have been expected to do so. However, we could detect no damaging
effect upon the badgers due to these delays or otherwise due to stopping when it
was practised responsibly. In contrast, irresponsible stopping with rubble
rather than loose soil is pointless, damaging to the landscape and probably also
to the badgers. We conclude that where stopping is deemed necessary it should
only be done either with loose soil, which the badgers can readily dislodge, or
with bungs such as soil-filled sacks, which the huntsmen should remove at the
end of the day's hunting.
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