Talk:Eurasian Badger

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is it really not known that european bagers dig up wasps nests? I've got a bumblebee nest in my garden that has clearly been extensively excavated by a mammal. I doubt foxes, it seems that a badger is the more likely culprit.

[edit] TB in cattle

As an aside: Although selective breeding has produced cows with very high milk yields, it has been at the expense of a 'strong constitution'. In other words modern cow would find survival difficult without veterinary intervention. They would not survive in the wild. Could it be for this reason that TB has been on the increase in cattle? That their immune systems are less fit, suggests that they are more likely to contract it from each other. Cows are often close together with other cows and since TB human form is not that easy to catch without close contact -maybe its the same for cows. --Aspro 20:20, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers

If badgers die at the rate of 50,000 a year in Britain, coupled with the population statistic there would be no badgers in just six years! Something seems fishy. (unsigned comment from User:71.112.25.139)

I agree. I spent some time sourcing some parts of the article in August, but this is one I didn't find a quote for. It would be very helpful if someone comes up with a source for this. We also have the figure The results of the first national badger survey published in 1990 estimated that 9,000 badgers were killed each year by badger digging. but no context for this survey. Who ran it, has badger digging continued at this rate, etc. --Telsa (talk) 08:13, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

if there are 300K badgers in the uk, the population is stable and the mean life is 3 years then it follows that arround 100K badgers must die each year and arround 100K must be born.

I'd like to see a source for that average 3 years figure though, i strongly suspect it excludes infant death. Plugwash 23:06, 30 July 2006 (UTC)