Badgers and Foxes

If you come across a very young badger cub away from the set there may be a problem. Observe for a while and if you need to intervene and help is not at hand you can catch the cub in a coat or a thick towel or blanket, wear gloves if you have them. It will need to be contained in a strong carry box or cat basket. Do not use cardboard boxes for obvious reasons. Take it to your local recue centre and alert your local badger group. They will need to check the area for other cubs.

Often badgers and foxes will get caught up in snares or you may even find one trapped in netting or a fence. Do not try to free the badger or fox. Call for assistance. It is important that the animal is assessed for any injury caused by its entrapment.

Fox cubs are often moved from one earth to another especially when they are about 4 to 5weeks old. The vixen will transport them one at a time. When she has taken one and deposited it in the new earth she will go to collect one of the others. She usually has 4 or 5 offspring. The first cub she takes often come out of the new hole looking for his/her siblings and parent. He/she will give out a contact call of three high pitched barks at regular intervals. This often attracts the wrong kind of attention. Members of the public are often alerted to this situation and wrongly pick them up assuming they have been abandoned and take them home. Observation from a distance is the key to this situation.

Foxes especially urban fox’s contract Sarcoptic mange. This is caused by thousands of small mites burrowing into the skin of the affected animal coursing irritation. The visible signs of this is lack of hair on the tail, crusty bald patches and a scaly looking face. Homeopathic remedies are often prescribed by some groups but how affective these are we don’t know. Your local wildlife centre will usually loan out a trap to catch the animal. Which can then be taken to the center for treatment and rehabilitation.