A fascinating insight into the badger's world. Badger biology, life in the sett, rescue & rehabilitation, consultancy, badgers & farming, and badger-watching with George Pearce - an expert on badgers. George has surveyed over 700 sites, visited 1,500 setts, been consulted as an expert in 120 animal cruelty cases and rehabilitated more than 100 badgers. Brought up on a farm, he earned his living as a farmer for 45 years. Today, he is a badger consultant and one of the foremost experts on the British mammal he admires the most. For many years, the RSPCA, police, veterinary surgeons and conservation groups all over the country have relied on George Pearce's knowledge and his instinctive feel for animal behaviour. Now you can share in his experience and enthusiasm for badgers from his 70 years of badger watching and his vast professional wildlife experience.

A fascinating insight into the badger’s world. Badger biology, life in the sett, rescue & rehabilitation, consultancy, badgers & farming, and badger-watching with George Pearce – an expert on badgers. George has surveyed over 700 sites, visited 1,500 setts, been consulted as an expert in 120 animal cruelty cases and rehabilitated more than 100 badgers. Brought up on a farm, he earned his living as a farmer for 45 years. Today, he is a badger consultant and one of the foremost experts on the British mammal he admires the most. For many years, the RSPCA, police, veterinary surgeons and conservation groups all over the country have relied on George Pearce’s knowledge and his instinctive feel for animal behaviour. Now you can share in his experience and enthusiasm for badgers from his 70 years of badger watching and his vast professional wildlife experience.

The badgers of Wytham Woods (Oxford, UK) have been studied continuously and intensively by David Macdonald for almost 50 years (25 of them with his former student and co-author Chris Newman), generating a wealth of data pertaining to every facet of their ecology and evolution. Through a mix of accessible, highly readable prose and cutting-edge science, the authors weave a riveting scientific story of the lives of these intriguing creatures, highlighting the insights offered to science more broadly through badgers as a model system. They provide a paradigm - from population down to molecule - for a deeper understanding of mammalian behaviour, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, and conservation. The real value of this long-term study is particularly apparent with current and globally relevant challenges such as climate change, disease epidemics, and senescence. This unique dataset enables us to examine these issues in a context that only a half-century experiment can reveal. The Badgers of Wytham Woods will appeal to a broad audience of professional academics (especially carnivore and mammalian biologists), researchers and students at all levels, governmental and non-governmental wildlife bodies, and to the natural historian fascinated by wild animals and the remarkable processes of nature they exemplify.

Badgers are elusive wanderers of the night and few mammals are as mysterious. Their nocturnal lifestyle meansnot many of us have ever glimpsed their monochrome form as they sniff and bustle their way through woodland or across pasture – yet most of us live far closer to a Badger group than we might think. In Spotlight: Badgers James Lowen explores all aspects of their lives including their communal living, feeding habits, as well as the major threats to and conservation support for Badgers. These iconic omnivores are widely represented in folklore and have permeated our popular culture. Generations of children have been entranced by Badger in Kenneth Grahame's book Wind in the Willows, however these determined yet mostly peaceful animals have also been loathed and persecuted for centuries. Badger baiting is thankfully now illegal, but the legal badger cull introduced in 2011 in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset remains in place following the 2015 general election. With so much politics surrounding Badgers in the UK, it's not easy to get unbiassed information. In RSPB Spotlight: Badgers James Lowen keeps a neutral tone on the debate about Badger culling. He describes the history, from the first Badger found to be infected with bTB in 1972 and the subsequent gassing of setts from 1975 to 1982. He also outlines the RSPB's stance on the Badger cull. As one of the UK's largest landowners, the RSPB oppose Badger culling on their land, in favour of vaccination, cattle testing, bio-security and movement controls. The Spotlight series introduces readers to the lives and behaviours of our favourite animals with eye-catching, colour photography and informative expert text.

A comprehensive description of the UK’s mammal population. Fully illustrated from the author’s extensive photographic collection. This book is the result of over fifty years of studying and photographing the mammals of the UK in their natural environment. It consists of full descriptions of our native mammals and the landscapes in which they live. It concentrates on the larger mammals such as the badger and foxes, but also all the smaller mammals such as stoats, weasels and polecats, and rodents including squirrels, voles and various mouse species. Finally it also describes some introduced animals both long established, such as the rabbit and brown hare, as well as briefer descriptions of the more recently introduced ones such as the mink. The book deals with how some of the mammals, such as the badger, have had their profiles raised through the work of the author together with Dr Ernest Neal. It was the combined work of various badger experts, including Derek Warren and Dr. Neal, and several MPs that resulted in the two badger bills being presented to parliament. The book contains a chapter by Adrian Middleton, a retired veterinary surgeon, on colour variations in mammals where these variations are described in detail. All of these descriptions within the book are accompanied by photographs of the various mammals taken by the author.

Young wildlife champion Alex White believes that a lifetime of caring for the environment can start close to home with fantastic experiences. Along with a host of well-known contributors, he reveals the simple and low-cost ways that people can enjoy nature. Together they share their passion, reveal what got them into wildlife in the first place and show how to get closer to it – now they want you to Get Your Boots On. The book also offers indispensable advice for those who would like to get more involved, or even build a career out of their passion for wildlife. Illustrated throughout by Alex’s stunning photographs, this book will appeal to young and old alike. It suggests: when and where to get out there; what to go looking for; how to do it; what to take… and a host of other tips. Practical advice for getting closer to nature. Encouragement from those who have lived it. ‘This fabulous and important book. It’s good, it’s inspirational and – critically – it’s heartening’— Chris Packham. ‘Alex is prominent as a standard-bearer for [a] new generation of wildlife champions… he is giving hope and inspiration to young people across this nation that despite all the challenges we face, it is still possible to make this world a better place for humans and wildlife’— Dominic Dyer, CEO Badger Trust & British Wildlife Advocate Born Free Foundation.

Conservationists assume a set of underlying values which guide their decision-making and action. The safeguarding or promotion of biodiversity, it is believed, is the means by which nature is best protected. This book examines - and challenges - these general conservation assumptions. While reinforcing the need to halt extinction and value biodiversity, it shows that biodiversity needs to be more clearly understood, perhaps being replaced by the notion of 'wildness'. It examines how biodiversity is a holistic term, and how individual species need to be assessed and their own contribution to 'wildness' has to be recognized. The book proposes a new way of conservation - one which makes more room for neglected, rather than endangered or rare species. It also asserts that 'wildness' is not incompatible with certain kinds of human intervention.