26 October 2019

Roger is not just your average lucky badger – lucky to be found and handed in to an animal shelter. He was

so sick when he arrived, late on a cold wet night, it didn't look like he'd live more than a few hours. He was fed via a stomach tube every two hours for two weeks until he developed a suck reflex, and only after that was he fed from a bottle.

His survival is testament to the remarkable efforts of the staff and volunteers of the Kildare Animal Foundation.

Rear entrance of the sett cleared out

Daylight revealed that Roger had started to make himself at home. The rear entrance of the sett, which had been full of leaves, was cleared out and showed signs of some overnight excavation.

Main entrance, untouched so far. Repaired roof is below sticks at bottom right.

He explored his new environment very calmly, as can be seen here:

First explorations (3 minutes of clips).
New home: Roger dug a latrine near the large fungus at the base of the tree in the foreground.

As it looks like being a dry night I left a few handfuls of barley straw near the rear entrance of the sett.