Foxes, Badgers, Rats and Rabbits

[GarethM]

We'd be moaning about a cave shortage tho, back in my day...

 

I do have to wonder how a climate activist justifies being in the arb industry tho.

 

I have to be pragmatic generally speaking or I'd be off to Switzerland, or get accused of keyboard warrior.

Edited February 19, 2023 by GarethM

[Doug Tait]

33 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

What do you think the average life span of the hunter gatherer was?

 

I know what you mean but from my perspective it's not so much about living longer and more about quality.

 

As an example, if we could ask a modern farm animal which life is a happier one, a lifespan controlled by humans that affords it guaranteed sustinance and medical intervention to keep it 'healthy' while it stands in a shed or field, or the life its ancestor led, I believe there'd be a majority vote for the old way.

 

I'm not saying being a hunter gatherer was a blessed life, it was undoubtedly a tenuous and difficult existence and they still had all the problems that life throws up, but it's possible the agricultural revolution wasn't the best long term course for our species (or others).

[JSN]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

What do you think the average life span of the hunter gatherer was?

 

How has life expectancy changed over time? - Office for National Statistics

WWW.ONS.GOV.UK

Life span only began to rise relatively recently. 

[Mick Dempsey]

Interesting, but I don’t think we were hunter gathering in 1841, maybe in Norfolk.

[peds]

One mustn't forget that life expectancy statistics throughout history are hugely skewed by child and infant mortality rates, which is a problem we have only relatively recently solved. They weren't as common a few hundred years ago, but old people definitely existed. I forget where I read it, but I think it's been suggested that as long as you made it past your early teenage years, and excepting things like famine, war, plague, and such, you could generally expect to see a few wrinkles before you passed on. 

[MattyF]

8 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Too many people.

And cars .. biggest killer of foxes and badgers , I’ve ran over at least 4 badgers , one night I actually managed to stop for one  but as I pulled away at about 1mph the stupid thing ran back out from the hedge and put it’s head under the back wheels and killed itself in slow motion, was gutted as if I was pissed and walked home it would usually be on one of the paths and I would walk with it in front of me for a mile with it occasionally turning around and snuffling at me, they are creatures of habit and timing!  
another night hit one and it was still breathing so decided to put it out of its misery with a planting spade in the back of the truck , entered the pub 15mins later and the barmaid was like wtf have you been doing and I realised I had bits of badger and blood over my face and front, took a lot more than I thought to finish it off…

one of my earliest memories is a badger digging under my dads chickens coup , getting in eating every thing and being to fat to get out , game keeper walking up to this angry thing and a laud bang of the shotgun. 
unfortunately we are know where near roads here now and there’s a lot of badgers , I’ve seen them try and take out adult sheep and leave them half chewed up but still alive , lambing is a nightmare as we can shoot the foxes but not the badgers. 

[Mick Dempsey]

Yeah, whenever I come back to the UK the roads are a bit of a slaughterhouse. 

[Billhook]

12 hours ago, GarethM said:

I have no lack of flying bugs, which all get hoovered up by the swarms of migratory birds including housemartin, swallows, swift etc.

 

The only pesticides/herbicides around here are used in gardens and by the council.

 

Personally I would talk to your parents and not use post DDT years as an example of how the world looks.

 

DDT caused atleast a 10-15 year collapse of bird populations, now 50ish years later it's almost finished correcting total numbers.

 

If in your youth lots of midges not being eaten=an imbalance somewhere, does it not ?.

I am not sure about the demise of the general bird population caused by DDT.  It certainly nailed the raptors and crows and magpies and the result was lawns with thrushes and other birds out in the middle of the lawns listening for worms, unmolested by Sparrow Hawks, hedges full of nesting birds unmolested by crows and Jays and Magpies.  Not saying go back to DDT but just making the point that the current demise in all these garden birds is usually put down to modern farming methods when really I think it is due to the banning of DDT which has resulted in the gradual return of raptors.  What chance has a bird to raise a family against, not only all these I have just mentioned but also domestic cats.

[Billhook]

11 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Too many people.

You are right Mick and they need my perfect solution which is to place an infertility drug into all artificial sugar.  I think you must advertise that it is in there.  This might clear a few beds in the NHS as I would bet that obesity would be the cause of half the patients from heart disease to hips and knees, to diabetes

[GarethM]

I have equal measure of birds of prey and garden birds, some very well fed ones especially from the worms in the woodchip.

 

Whilst I can't obviously comment over say 60+ years, I am a great believer in hedge height reduction to help nesting birds.

 

It might sound silly but lots of hedges just become tall and gangly, I keep getting my hedge guy to take more off every year from 8/9 ft down to 6 with them eventually around 5 and making them a safe refuge.