Sue Allison and I assisted the Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital with the release of a badger in Leicester, LE2. The fully grown male was picked up from near the corn exchange / market in the city centre last Tuesday looking a little worse for wear. After examination it appeared that he had most likely suffered a slight scrape with a vehicle. After a few days recovery at the wildlife hospital, he was getting a bit grumpy and restless, so the time came to release him. Now here’s the problem and where we came in. Obviously putting him back where he was found wasn’t an option, so the nearest sett that we know of is about 500m from where he was found and was the only release site suitable. This was going to be a gamble, but where else?

Luckily, he was a healthy boar with no sign of territorial fighting, so unlikely that he had been pushed out of his clan.

We parked at my workplace which is close to the release site. We carried the cage to a nearby park, he was very heavy. The sett is in a quiet overgrown area, and as we fought our way through the undergrowth the badger started to get very excited, which was a good sign. We put the cage down right next to two active entrances to the sett, and as soon as I opened the cage he jumped straight out. He had a quick sniff into one of the holes but didn’t go down, unfortunately. Instead, he disappeared into the bushes where I think there are possibly more entrances. We quietly left the sett hoping that he knew where he was. I would have been happier if he had gone straight down into the sett, but if this is not his home I’m sure he is in familiar territory, and has a good chance of finding his way home. There was no way of re-catching him anyway. Big thanks to the Wildlife Hospital for caring for him.

Gary