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Articles on Badger cull

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You’re next. Chris Beckett

Badger cull didn’t kill enough badgers to be effective

In the flurry of the holiday season, many people will have missed the government’s verdict on the 2014 badger culls, published on December 18. Farmers’ representatives have branded these recent culls “successful…
Cleaned out - badgers can make quick work of even spiny hedgehogs. Steve Plummer

The badger cull is not the answer to hedgehogs’ problems

What to do, when two of Britain’s most loved animals run up against each other? In a study recently published in the journal PLOS One, we found that the numbers of hedgehogs living in suburban areas in…
When disturbed, badgers’ social groups scatter and spread TB more widely. Ben Birchall/PA

Tuberculosis, tracking devices, and the social lives of badgers

Badgers in the UK are an important wildlife reservoir for bovine tuberculosis, a disease that leads to the slaughter of thousands of cattle each year at a significant cost to the tax payer. But the badger…
Britain’s best loved mammal, but no friend to cattle farmers. Ben Birchall/PA

Swapping science for shooting won’t save cattle or badgers

What do the pilot badger culls due to start this weekend in Gloucester and West Somerset hope to achieve? The official line is a 16% reduction of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle herds over the next…

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