Are badgers stupid?

Chris Eilbeck said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4
dead badgers in various states of decay on the road.

nah, they just decay very slowly. That's about 300 years roadkill for
the local badger population.

Phil Clarke said:

Chris Eilbeck said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4
dead badgers in various states of decay on the road.

nah, they just decay very slowly. That's about 300 years roadkill for
the local badger population.

A couple of years ago a string of signs went up along the main dual
carriageway here warning of badgers because so many were being found
dead.

Rumour was that it was the farmers killing them and putting them in the
road!

peter

naked_draughtsman said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4
dead badgers in various states of decay on the road.

nah, they just decay very slowly. That's about 300 years roadkill for
the local badger population.

A couple of years ago a string of signs went up along the main dual
carriageway here warning of badgers because so many were being found
dead.

Rumour was that it was the farmers killing them and putting them in the
road!

David Archer tried that..... and he would have got away with it if it
hadn't have been for Matt Crawford.

Judith

Chris Eilbeck <[email hidden]> whizzed past me shouting

Quoted message said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4 dead badgers in
various states of decay on the road. Did 40k or so on the tourer on
Friday too and saw two dead ones. Has there been some interbreeding
of the lemming and badger populations?

No, they're pure badger, but yes, they're stupid.

Badgers are well hard, mate: they're very strong and their front claws
are fearsome. For millions of years nothing has voluntarily attacked
them (in badger baiting you won't find any blokes offering to fight the
badgers themselves) so they walk into the road as if they own it.

A recent development is the Motor Vehicle, which is exactly like a
badger but bigger. French country people call townies "badgers" - it's
not a compliment. And the French Resistance used to get rid of dead
collaborators by leaving them in the road!

The most dead badgers I've ever seen in one place was seven;
two were very fresh, three were a week or two old and the other two
could've been there for months. There must've been a sett nearby. This
area's already got all the badgers it can hold so for every badger born
a badger's gotta get flattened.

I haven't seen any roadkills at all for weeks, just the odd smear of
blood on the tarmac. The Aerial Roadkill Removal Service has a red kite
about every hundred metres, all hungrily watching for something to die.
If motor drivers could see them up there, they might even drive more
carefully!

--
Sue ]🙁🙂

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.

On Sun, 2 Apr 2006 23:54:15 +0100 someone who may be Sue White
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Badgers are well hard, mate: they're very strong and their front claws
are fearsome. For millions of years nothing has voluntarily attacked
them (in badger baiting you won't find any blokes offering to fight the
badgers themselves) so they walk into the road as if they own it.

A recent development is the Motor Vehicle, which is exactly like a
badger but bigger.

Another recent development, in some areas, is the railway
electrified with unprotected conductor rails. In another place
someone relates the tale of a badger he saw. This crossed the
conductor rail and presumably got a mild shock. It then turned round
to bite whatever had caused the mild shock, with fatal consequences.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

Sue White said:

The Aerial Roadkill Removal Service has a red kite
about every hundred metres, all hungrily watching for something to die.

That's all very well provided they can be persuaded to leave their tasty
snack as the next car approaches. Driving through South Oxfordshire
yesterday evening I had to slow right down to allow three of them to fly
away from the road. They looked really impressive close-up, though.

David Hansen said:

Another recent development, in some areas, is the railway
electrified with unprotected conductor rails. In another place
someone relates the tale of a badger he saw. This crossed the
conductor rail and presumably got a mild shock. It then turned round
to bite whatever had caused the mild shock, with fatal consequences.

It's a good job that badgers aren't big as bovines (c.f. George
Stephenson's coo (sic) and a railway disaster which temporarily escapes
me as Nock and Rolt are both packed away, but I'm sure David and/or Guy
will be along in a minute with the reference...)

R.

Sue White said:

Chris Eilbeck <[email hidden]> whizzed past me shouting

Quoted message said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4 dead badgers in
various states of decay on the road. Did 40k or so on the tourer on
Friday too and saw two dead ones. Has there been some interbreeding
of the lemming and badger populations?

No, they're pure badger, but yes, they're stupid.

Badgers are well hard, mate: they're very strong and their front claws
are fearsome. For millions of years nothing has voluntarily attacked
them (in badger baiting you won't find any blokes offering to fight
the badgers themselves) so they walk into the road as if they own it.

So it's just a case of badgers playing chicken?

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck

In article <[email hidden]>, Sue White

() said:

A recent development is the Motor Vehicle, which is exactly like a
badger but bigger. French country people call townies "badgers" - it's
not a compliment. And the French Resistance used to get rid of dead
collaborators by leaving them in the road!

<URL:http://www.martian.fm/iplac4.jpg>

Warning: contains a Rude Word...

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of
the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and
credulity encourages.

Chris Eilbeck said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4 dead badgers in
various states of decay on the road. Did 40k or so on the tourer on
Friday too and saw two dead ones. Has there been some interbreeding
of the lemming and badger populations?

Trouble round here is that Hunters & badger baiters dump them by the
road to make them look like road kill!
:-((
Dan Gregory

Chris Eilbeck said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4 dead badgers in
various states of decay on the road. Did 40k or so on the tourer on
Friday too and saw two dead ones. Has there been some interbreeding
of the lemming and badger populations?

The dead ones certainly stink in summer.

in message <[email hidden]>, Dan Gregory

(') said:

Chris Eilbeck said:

Just been to Cambridge by car for the day and saw 4 dead badgers in
various states of decay on the road. Did 40k or so on the tourer on
Friday too and saw two dead ones. Has there been some interbreeding
of the lemming and badger populations?

Trouble round here is that Hunters & badger baiters dump them by the
road to make them look like road kill!

Yup. Of the five badgers I've ever seen dead on the roadside round here
(they aren't so common in these parts), three were on the same weekend.
Not, I think, a coincidence.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

<p>Schroedinger's cat is <blink><strong>NOT</strong></blink> dead.</p>

Richard <[email hidden]>
whizzed past me shouting

Quoted message said:

It's a good job that badgers aren't big as bovines (c.f. George
Stephenson's coo (sic) and a railway disaster which temporarily escapes
me as Nock and Rolt are both packed away, but I'm sure David and/or Guy
will be along in a minute with the reference...)

In the late 60s or early 70s a number of human fatalities were caused by
ramming a cow with a Glasgow to Paisley DMU.
I can't remember reading a historical writeup of it though.

--
Sue ];(🙂

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.

When they electrified a railway down these parts (old fashioned bzzzt
live rail) literally dozens of badgers were electrocuted crossing the
rails in the first few months, they only previously had to listen for
trains. So they had to put special gaps in the live rail; no idea if it
worked.

On 6 Apr 2006 16:27:20 -0700 someone who may be "MartinM"
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

So they had to put special gaps in the live rail; no idea if it worked.

The gaps work because badgers follow set routes a lot of the time.
They should have thought about it before electrifying the line and I
suspect they will do in future.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54