Gif in a handful of badger fortresses: ‘I have never seen this before’

On Good Friday, forest ranger Sem Van Hoogstraten went to see if the Bostulp was still in bloom in a certain piece of ‘his’ area De Maasheggen. The Maasheggen is a chain of nature reserves that extends from Vierlingsbeek in Brabant to Batenburg in Gelderland. At the place where Van Hoogstraten went to look, there is a lot of badger activity. As always, he therefore checked whether the badgers had dug new tunnels, so that mowing can be taken into account.

Suddenly he saw a large pile of white powder lying in front of the entrance of a badger tunnel. And when he looked better, he saw that powder had also been scattered in the tunnel. « I thought: what’s going on here again? » The forester says on the phone. Then he found more heaps of powder for badger tunnels. He soon thought of poison. The powder smelled of fish. « Perhaps the natural scent of the substance. Or added to seduce the tie. » He called the Environment Service, Stichting Das & Boom, but nobody knew what it was.

The Brabant Noord Environment Agency came to help. The powder was found in five badger fortresses (corridors that dig ties), says a spokesperson. « On Saturday afternoon, a company removed the poison with a special vacuum cleaner. The suspicion is that it was carbide, but we chose to clean it up as quickly as possible instead of further investigating it. » When carbide powder comes into contact with water, for example because it rains, it produces a gas. That gas is flammable and can lead to breathlessness for badgers when it comes to the tunnel, because the oxygen displaces. The Environment Service has informed the police of ‘the case’. He will place a witness call on the social media channels of the Animal Police East Brabant.

Do not poison

Dassen are threatened in all sorts of ways, says Bert Hesse of Stichting Das & Boom, but he has never seen this before. One fifth part of the population, about seven thousand ties, dies in traffic every year. And home expansion and the energy transition dispel ties to places where they can survive more difficult. Emerged nature is also a problem, because Dassen mainly live on earthworms.

Farmers usually do not use poison. More often they close the badger tunnels with a shovel. Stones in it, pieces of tree on it

And then there is human intervention: yes, badgers are sometimes poisoned – then they are found dead with foam from their mouths. But Hesse has never seen an action on this scale before. Moreover, in the case of human intervention, it is often about farmers who suffer from harvest damage due to the badger. Poisoning is not a common way for them. More often they close the badger tunnels with a shovel. Stones in it, pieces of tree on it.

A potato farmer lives not far from the bad tunnels with the heaps of white powder. But forester Sem van Hoogstraten does not think he was. « Of course I spoke to that, but he said, » We have been living here for so long with the tie, he is just our neighbor.  » Moreover, ties don’t like potatoes. Those who did it then are also a mystery to the forester. « I do not know any parties in the area that could experience damage. Yes, perhaps the water boards, because of the dikes, but it seems strong to me that a government body would do this. »

In any case, it seems that the Maashegene ties have survived the suspected attempted murder. « We did not find dead badgers and this morning we saw fresh traces at a castle where no powder had been scattered. That could mean that the badgers deliberately avoided the tunnels where the powder was. »

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