I was thinking I was doing and this spring got over three hundred of the little buggers. Don't seem to be many left. Got one today. A friend called tonight and Sid they disappeared on his farm about two weeks ago as well he is wondering if they got sick. I saw a weasel today run down a gopher hole. And the badgers have been working them over really hard. I am hoping the disease thing may be right it sure would be easier on the farm equipment.

You killed all of them! :)

Paul

I didn't know Badgers ate Gophers!

There is a research scientist that works of of Lethbridge that is the foremost Richardson ground squirrel person in the world. She has a numbered rock beside each hole and observations are made from an upper window in her house
One year a badger came through and the badger dug the holes up and kill a bunch of the gophers it reburied them and left them for a couple of weeks to season out to the proper flavours. Anyhow when it came back to eat them it dug them out in the same order in killed them at for a few days until it consumed them. I know people that are not that bright. A pair of badgers can put the hurt on a gopher colony they don't kill them all but will kill most of them. They need to keep a few so they have something to eat next year.

Don't know if UK & US Badgers are the same species.

In the UK, the"Bunnie Huggers", would have us all believe that they are cute cuddly creatures, that eat nothing but Slugs & Worms & Snails, where in fact they are carnivores in the same league as the Red Fox.

Nothing with teeth & claws like that just eats Slugs & Worms & Snails !.  

Many of the cases of farm stock being eaten by "Big Cats", on the loose in the UK, are probably down to Brock getting a free meal, when they come across a dead Sheep or Cow.

I spoke to a Sheep farmer once in Scotland, & he said that if a Yew had one Lamb, she could usually defend it from attack by a Badger, but if she had twin's she would loose one. He had witnessed it happen more than once.

I was surprised to find out that US and UK badgers are not the same species. They look VERY much alike. They are not even the same genus, which was most surprising. "New World" badgers are Taxidea taxus, and "Old World" badgers are Meles meles. I like badgers from all three sub-families the third of which is the one that contains the African honey badger (Mellivora capensis), all of which belong to my favorite family of mammals - Mustelidae - the weasels. They are extremely smart critters, and the entire family is absolutely fearless.

Paul

The best thing about a badger is it is really hard to shoot under them!