At about 8.30pm last night there was one hell of a noise, very close to the farm house, it sounded as if a Fox was killing a Pheasant, it quite often happens, but this was going on far too long for a Fox and Pheasant, so we went out side to investigate and saw that it was two Badgers fighting by the side of the house. We tried to shoo them away to stop them fighting, but to no avail, you would not want to get to close to them in that mood. After a few minutes longer the noise stopped and we thought no more of it.
On letting the dogs out this morning, we could see a pile of something at the entrance to the orchard, finding it to be a dead Badger, it was a young male, probably a last years cub, going by its size. I could not see any serious injuries on it, just a bite on the top of its rear leg.
I cant be sure if it is one from the sett we broadcast from, although it did look smaller than the ones I have seen when feeding, but it is difficult to judge sizes from a live and dead Badger.
It is possible that it was a stray Badger from another sett, that had strayed to close in the territory of the local sett. It would also be about this time of year that the Badgers mate, a stray Badger may have smelt a female from the local sett, that would also have caused the fight that we witnessed. But the dead Badger, if it was one that was involved in the fight, was making his way in the direction of the local sett that we broadcast from, maybe he was trying to get home for refuge after being critically injured. It may also have been that he was being pushed out of the sett by the older Badgers, they do that sometimes, but at his age he would not have been a threat. We will never know.
The sett only consisted of five badgers in the beginning of 2006, with two females giving birth last year the amount doubled. Only about a week ago I had seen the ten feeding, the first time since the late last summer, I had believed that there were nine in the sett. I was surprised so many had survived, as they can often be seen along the lanes as road victims.