Tommy, our first badger casualty, arrived on 24th January, 1996, a young male found injured in the Radlett area. He was taken to Cayton Veterinary Practice where he was treated by an Australian vet who had never seen a badger before. Tommy was obviously the victim of a road traffic accident. He had a broken jaw, squashed nose, lacerations of the neck and also needed to have a number of broken teeth extracted. Following treatment, two Badger Group members brought him to the pen for convalescence. When the crush cage in which he had been transported was opened, he made a beeline for the tunnel which leads to the insulated sleeping chamber. He could be heard sorting out the straw to make his bed and was left alone to settle.
Tommy's Story
Unfortunately, the weather had been so cold that, more often than not, his food and water were frozen before he’d had a chance to eat or drink. After two days it was decided to try and offer him sustenance in the chamber. The milk was offered in a shallow frying pan. This was lapped up eagerly. The next day turkey soup was also polished off, but on the third occasion he was feeling much better and, on being offered egg and milk, he bit the hand that fed him! After that his food was left in the tunnel and he seemed to cope quite well. While waiting for his jaw to mend he had to have soft food. He drank quite a lot of water, when it wasn’t frozen, and used the latrine area regularly both for urinating and defecating. He moved the large log around and continually lifted the drainage grating. He usually emerged from his sleeping quarters rather too late for us to see him on the surveillance camera, but he did appear at 19.30 hours one evening and we watched him drinking from the partly frozen water bowl. He drank for 5 minutes with a lot of snorting and sniffing. He then returned to the tunnel and, 2 minutes later, re-appeared, used the latrine area, drank more water, wandered all round the pen and went back into the tunnel. He seemed to be making a good recovery, and we tried not to disturb him unless really necessary.
Tommy was taken back to Cayton Veterinary Practice on 6th March, 1996, to have the metal support for his broken jaw removed and two more teeth extracted. He was given a ten day course of anti-biotics in tablet form and the young lady at the vets suggested I popped them into his mouth twice a day! ! !
Once bitten twice shy; I decided not to take her advice but put the tablets in his food, one in the soup, which he always ate first, and one with the solid food. Needless to say, just like dogs and cats, all the food was eaten but the tablets remained untouched. After that, the tablets were crumbled up and were eaten without further trouble.
Once Tommy was able to eat solid food such as worms, peanuts, dried dog food, rats, mice and day old chickens, arrangements were made for his release.
He was taken back to the Radlett area on 22nd March, 1996, near the place where the accident happened and where there were known to be a number of setts. He was released at a spot where some badger paths cross. He sniffed the air a number of times and took off along one of the paths without a backward glance. Hopefully he returned to his own sett but I don't expect his mother believed him when he told her about his adventure. A few members of the Badger Group, and the policewoman who found Tommy, were there to see the first of many successful releases from the badger pen.
The opportunity to have a surveillance camera installed gave us the chance to make some interesting observations of Tommy's behaviour:
Once he discovered the drain hole he always used this for urinating and defecating, invariably removing the grating first.
He didn't make any mess anywhere.
He often took feeding bowls into his sleeping chamber.
He always looked very relaxed and did not seem concerned by dogs barking or cars going by.
On the few occasions when the lid of the chamber had to be lifted, he ran to hide in the tunnel.
He always ate the meat soup (usually chicken or turkey) first. This was probably because of his sore mouth.
Orphaned badgers being prepared for release.
A would-be escapee, named James Bond.
We return badgers to the wild wherever possible but in the case of orphaned cubs, they are usually introduced into a new social group with other orphans.
Cub being hand-fed.
