I know that we have been doing a lot of Badger stuff but you see…
Fluffy Bunnies are all right, in fact I won’t have a word said against them, but we also have to work on advancing our understanding of the natural world.
That is why we are filming the semi-natural behaviour of our Badgers.
This next video hasn’t got many animals in it but I have not seen this sort of behaviour before and so I thought that I should post it.
Badger chases Fox but he is not just running at the Fox to see him off he is chasing him with the intention of catching him. The chase starts right at the beginning of the clip and the animals go out of shot. They come back into shot twice as the Badger pursues the Fox around the field. He really doesn’t like this Fox. Does he want to punish him or eat him? This is strange behaviour.
I watched the remaining clips on the memory card with some nervous excitement whenever the two animals were in the frame together. I have a feeling it is all going to kick off between those two and I do not really understand why. Nothing else did happen that night. The camera was out there again last night and I am really interested to see what happens next.
Foxy has been getting himself into trouble in other ways too. I might post about that in a bit.
A Tramp in the Woods 
Another intriguing and interesting piece of footage Colin, it will be really interesting to see what happens over the coming days/weeks … keep up the great work.
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Thanks Marco. I am intrigued by this behaviour. I have read that the social structure of a Badger clan is not fully understood and that unlike other social animals they don’t band together to defend a territory and they don’t forage together (except when I put food right outside the sett). Maybe this Badger is an example of an individual taking it on himself to defend the territory. In later videos the Fox was foraging alongside other Badgers with no sign of aggression.
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Excellent blog! Maybe the Badger heard the sing “What does the fox say” and had the same visceral feeling most folks have and got rid of the fox… 😉
or maybe a territorial thing.
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Thank you so much Ed. Who knows where it will all end? Last night the Fox turned up with two of his mates but that was okay because the Badgers weren’t there. They had gone round the Foxes gaffe to do the place over 🙂 Seriously though the Fox has got a mate and cubs things are going to get busy.
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