Back off our badgers!

I am writing regarding your feature about badgers Night worker ( March issue). I think you tended to focus on the negative aspects of badger behaviour, telling your readers that they dig up lawns, eat hedgehogs, build their setts in people’s gardens and spread TB to cattle. While badgers do occasionally dig in lawns for insect larvae or worms, it is not common and only happens at certain times of the year. You make no mention of the main causes of hedgehog decline, which is the excessive use of pesticides and people fencing off their gardens, preventing them from finding enough food. The fact that badgers are increasingly found in gardens is due to pressures from land development, resulting in the destruction of their setts and foraging grounds, leaving them with no alternative but to try and find food in other locations. I would question why reference was made to bovine TB in a feature about the natural behaviour of one of our native mammals. There is no evidence to prove that badgers spread TB to cattle or how its transmission might take place – there are also many other species of animal that can carry and pass on bovine TB. The sad fact is that our native wildlife has been infected by a disease caused by intensive farming methods and poor farm biosecurity. Research has shown that 96 per cent of TB in cattle is caused by cattle to cattle transmission. Badgers – one of our most iconic native mammals – have been around for half a million years. They live in stable family groups, and some setts have existed for hundreds of years. We should be protecting these creatures while we still can. Jenny Pike, by email

We say Our feature aimed to provide a factual description of badgers, while sensitively addressing the continuing debate. surrounding TB and hedgehogs.