Yesterday evening while doing our usual walk along the disused bush road up in the hills outside the village, we encountered a badger (Meles meles) acting very strangely. For a start, this was the first badger I’ve seen here in 18 years (I regularly catch them on game camera, usually licking it, but never encounter them ‘in person’); secondly, it was pre-dusk and they’re nocturnal; thirdly, the badger repeatedly stopped and watched us and then continued approaching, even using the cover of the high grass at the meadow’s edge to sneak up on us.
While I dearly love badgers and find them incredibly cute, any animal that behaves oddly for its species has to be treated with suspicion. We occasionally get rabies in the area and this can massively affect an animal’s behaviour. While this badger didn’t growl or grumble aggressively, I wanted to give it chance to back off before it felt the need to defend itself. Perhaps we were too close to its sett or cubs? We walk this route sometimes twice a day – for well over a decade – and have never experienced this before. I’d like to think it was just inquisitive but it should have heard or smelled us long before and hidden, not come running in. Amazing experience though. It’s amazing how most animal encounters last merely a couple of seconds.
You can hear that we’re out of breath as this encounter took place close to the summit of a steep hill some 3 or 4 miles into the walk.
