Badgers find calm
IT’S strange how you link certain things in life and wildlife.
I was only thinking today that badgers and foxes will be benefitting from a bit of peace and quiet during the rail strike.
To be honest, one of the reasons why these beautiful mammals nest close to our railways is because there isn’t much disturbance.
Trains are far less frequent than cars on dangerous roads and these areas are restricted to people other than rail workers.
Rail “valleys” are kept tidy but they are nicely overgrown in places, making them ideal for our iconic mammals to hide and hunt.
A good friend of mine, who helps to maintain these areas along our railways, said there are parts where badger setts are abundant.
This is encouraging, because generally in the North West we are not seen as a welcoming place for badgers, after centuries of cruel baiting by people who have no regard for these animals or their own dogs.
Railways and former railways have always provided wonderful corridors for wildlife because they are not heavily disturbed.
If you are sitting on a train and happen to see a fox or a family of foxes, they just seem intrigued by the passing box of humans that whizzes by every so often.
Obviously some animals are killed by trains and electrification of lines can be a real problem when setts and dens are nearby, but generally local badger, fox, deer, hedgehog and bird populations fare better than near to roads.
I always think it’s amazing that we have mammals like badgers in our busy UK, but our largest land mammal does live underground in secret setts in woodlands.
Each sett is a network of passages and burrows, so some rail embankments are perfect.
The badger is a large, black and white predator, feeding on birds’ eggs, worms, fruit and plants.
It has a short, fluffy tail and black paws, which it uses to dig for food.
It has a black-and-white striped face.
I once had my face painted as a badger at the Manchester Punk Festival and was a very popular selfie subject for many revellers as I walked along Oxford Road, proving that badgers are popular animals.
Badger cubs are born at the beginning of the year and spend a few months underground before appearing above ground about now.
Even higher up the cute spectrum are fox cubs.
Riding on a train is often the only chance many people will get to see foxes in daylight.
Foxes are secretive and stealthy hunters, which some people see as being sly.
I would say it’s sensible to avoid people who might want to hunt you for a bit of “sport”.
Most people will recognise the orangey-red fox, with its white belly and black ear tips and that bushy tail or brush.
Foxes can scavenge along the railway embankments for small mammals, birds, frogs, worms as well as berries and fruit.
Of course, many foxes have found safety in urban areas and will scavenge in and around bins.
Foxes dens are also burrows, called earths.
Again railway embankments are soft enough in many places for them to dig into and make a home.
So railway lines are ideal and mainly safe corridors for our beautiful bigger mammals to move around in peace.
Don’t forget it’s the Manchester Festival of Nature this Sunday in Heaton Park.
Come along and say hello.