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INDEX-(click
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Run
With Animals - BBC Radio 4 - 09/07/02 |
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BADGERS
with Chris
Sperring
Badgers are not easy creatures to track. They have a
keen sense of smell and excellent hearing which
allows them to detect and avoid danger in the
woodland night. Despite their size they move swiftly
and silently, with only the odd snuffle or cracking
twig to give them away. Chris has to remain silent,
and employ all of his tracking and field-craft
experience, in order to get close to these elusive
animals and follow them into the night.
14min programme
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picture
courtesy of BBC |
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A
Year In The Life Of Ants - BBC Radio
4 -
April 2003 |
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picture
courtesy of BBC |
Programme 3.
Early Summer
Its early summer,
and as well as the ants, there are mountain bikes
moving through the forest. The cyclists can disrupt
the ant trails and occasionally run over or through
an ant nest. Of greater threat though to the ant
nest are the grappling harvesters; these move
through the forest felling trees which may fall on
the nest. The tree clearance also reduces the
habitat suitable for the wood ants. Sparrow hawks are
active at this time of year too, hunting for the
chicks.
Then, one evening in May, when the temperature and
humidity are just right; the virgin females embark
on their ritual mating flight; when females take to
the air and mate. |
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Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson
inserts a
microphone into the nest and
listens for the sounds
of ants |
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After mating, the
females start a new colony; either
in their natal nest or they initiate
a colony elsewhere. Some ants invade
the nests of other colonies and
enslave the workers as their own.
Whilst the newly mated queens are
establishing their colonies, a
badger emerges from his burrow in
search of food. His prowls through
the forest lead him to the wood ant
nest; its a fast food restaurant for
the badger; a mouthful of wood ant
pupae making a tasty midnight snack!
14min programme
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David
Archer shoots badger - The Today Programme - BBC
Radio 4 - 28/08/03 |
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picture courtesy of BBC |
 by
Bob Walker
August 2003. The world's
longest-running
radio soap marked its 14,000th
edition with a plotline that struck
a chord with everyday country folk.
For
years The Archers has raised
eyebrows with stories of rural
infidelities, crime, unjust prison
sentences and - rather more
prosaically - the misfortunes of the
farming industry. Now it's the
law-breaking activities of one of
Ambridge's more stolid citizens
that's got the fans talking.
Ever since the sound of David
Archer's shotgun faded away to be
merged with the familiar strains of
The Archers' famous theme tune,
opinions have been divided over
whether he should have taken the law
into his own hands. |
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Timothy
Bentick
aka David Archer |
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David, provoked beyond endurance by
a third TB outbreak among his
cattle, shot dead a badger which had
wandered into his farmyard.
Many farmers blame badgers - known
to carry TB - for spreading the
infection to their animals by
urinating on grazing land. The
problem has been particularly
serious in the South West though
it's now spread to the Midlands.
DEFRA is running pilot projects
throughout the country designed to
establish whether or not there is a
link between bovine TB and badgers
and the best way of dealing with the
problem. In some areas badgers can
be culled if cattle go down with TB.
However it'll be several years
before the results of these
experiments are known.
There are strong indications that
The Archers plotline is an accurate
reflection of the situation in
affected areas. Ed Barker used to
run a family farm in Staffordshire
but gave up the business following a
third outbreak of TB among his
cattle. He now works as the rural
science technician at a Uttoxeter
secondary school. He now looks after
the school's farm animals and
maintains the grounds and playing
fields. He sympathises with David
Archer's plight and says he
personally knows of a number of
local farmers who have killed
badgers after their cows were
infected with TB.
Irene Brierton helps run the Mid
Derbyshire Badger Group which
campaigns on behalf of this
protected animal. The group nurses
injured badgers back to health at a
secret location. Irene says the
group has long suspected that
farmers have been taking the law
into their own hands. On one
occasion a group of badly decomposed
badgers was found lying scattered in
a field. The state of the carcasses
made it impossible to determine the
cause of death. "But it was obvious
that they hadn't died of natural
causes," she said.
6min 30sec
item from within "Today" on Radio 4
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The New Forest
Badgers - BBC1 - Spring 2005 |
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Nature
- BBC Radio 4 - 06/02/06 |
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TO CULL OR NOT
TO CULL
with Grant Sonnex
As the government calls for our views on whether or
not we should cull badgers to help control
tuberculosis in cattle, in Nature that week Grant Sonnex asked whether
the science supports a cull
which could reduce our badger numbers by up to a
third.
Many cattle farms are currently in crisis, with TB
rising by up t0 20% each year in TB "hotspots" in
the English south-west and West Midlands.
There have been no large-scale badger culls since
the late 1990s pending the results of a Randomised
Badger Culling Trial, which was established to
determine the connections between the incidence of
TB in badgers and of TB in cattle. |
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picture
courtesy of BBC |
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Now the interim results of that trial have been
published and their message has overturned the
expectations of many involved in badger research.
Nature examined the history of badgers and TB in
Britain and heard evidence from farmers, scientists
and researchers here and in the Republic of Ireland
to assess the arguments for and against a further
cull
At this crucial time, Grant Sonnex explores the
latest science from the UK and abroad and asks
whether the evidence supports a further cull.
30min programme
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Badgers
and Vitamins? - The Today Programme - BBC
Radio 4 - 05/04/06 |
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by Tom Fielden
Vitamin pills or widespread culls -
how to deal with badgers
and the spread of TB
An organic farmer in the Cotswolds
thinks he has the answer....
molasses & selenium!
picture
courtesy of BBC |
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4min 25sec
item from within "Today" on Radio 4
Listen Again (courtesy of BBC) PLEASE NOTE : Requires
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Open
Country - The New Forest - BBC Radio 4 -
27/05/06 |
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Open Country with Helen Mark
(No
badgers...but does include some
of our local celebrities)
Helen Mark visits the New Forest,
England's newest National Park. The forest was
originally established as a hunting
ground by William the Conqueror and
he set up a system of governance
which has remained in place to this
day, through the efforts of verderers, agisters and commoners -
the judges, police and land-users of
the forest |
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picture
courtesy of BBC |
Contributors:
Jonathan Gerrelli, Head
Agister and Commoner. Helen watches
on as Jonathan lets his stallion and
twenty or so mares out on to the
common for the first time this year,
just as commoners have done for
centuries.
Clive Chatters is a
conservationist and has recently
been appointed by the Secretary of
State to be a governor of the new
National Park Authority. He meets
Helen on the Hurst Spit, overlooking
a wide expanse of salt marsh and
explains what he feels are the
biggest challenges for England's
smallest national park.
Patrick Payne is the
custodian of the New Forest's only
castle, situated at the very top of
the Hurst spit. Hurst castle is a
long, low-slung fortress originally
built by Henry VIII that was
extended by the Victorians and was
heavily fortified in World War II,
although amazingly in its entire
history has never seen action.
Richard Stride, a commoner,
relates to Helen the way of life of
the Forest people, which includes
the tradition of the yearly round-up
of ponies, called the drift, and how
through the concerted efforts of the
commoners, the price of a New Forest
pony has recovered from the all time
low of 2002, when they fetched
around £5, to a more respectable £80
or more.
Martin Noble is Chief Keeper,
responsible for the wildlife in the
New Forest. Fifteen years ago he
began a very successful
re-introduction of the sand lizard,
providing the conditions for the
adults to mate in his back garden,
and incubating the eggs in his
airing cupboard!
Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre,
Official Verderer of the New Forest,
has recently re-published the
writings of his great great
grandfather, George Briscoe Eyre,
who was passionate that the New
Forest be protected by laws that
would allow it to flourish as it had
in previous centuries.
Lindsay Cornish is the chief
executive of the New Forest National
Park authority, and has been in post
for just under a year. She is
adamant that every one of the 43,000
residents will be given a voice as
to the future of the UK's most
densely populated national park
Open Country web page
30min programme
Listen Again (courtesy of BBC) PLEASE NOTE : Requires
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News
Report - Badgers & Foxes - BBC1 Midlands - 17th
July 2007 |
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A
nocturnal news film of badgers and
foxes eating together has amazed
experts. Both visit the garden of
Alwyn Sharples at the same time to
eat the food left out for them.
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PLEASE NOTE :
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