Tunnelling badgers endanger Britain's trove of hidden relics

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The secrets of how the ancient ancestors of modern Britons lived and died on Salisbury Plain could be lost forever because the evidence is being destroyed by badgers reports Juliette Jowit, Environment Editor of The Observer.

Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire has harboured the mysteries of civilisations for more than 5,500 years, making it one of Europe's most treasured archaeological sites.

Just beneath the surface are the remains of Bronze Age burials, Iron Age enclosures, Roman villages, Saxon and Medieval settlements and the Second World War.

Yet a fast growing population of badgers, attracted to easy digging conditions, is building networks of tunnels that threaten to wreck Britain's historical treasure trove.

Experts are so alarmed that they are risking the wrath of animal lovers by demanding action, possibly a mass cull.

Even then, culling badgers in one area will create 'a space' for others to move in, said Dr Allan Morton, the Ministry of Defence archaeologist. 'I don't think it's good to kill anything [but] we don't know how to deal with it. I tend to believe perhaps just culling the population right across the board might work better, or instead of culling we should stop nurturing [them].'

The 94,000-acre plain has 2,500 archaeological sites, more than 300 of them protected by law as Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

Since the MoD took it over for military exercises in 1897 it has become one of Britain's best protected areas for wildlife and archaeology because little of the land is farmed. 'It's one of the most important historical landscapes in Europe - amazingly well preserved,' says David Miles, chief archaeologist at English Heritage.

'Most people think of Salisbury Plain for prehistoric archaeology, but it's desperately important for the Roman period - you could walk around from one Roman village to the next, and down the streets in the village and down the country lanes to the next village. It's almost like going back in time and seeing a countryside for the last 500 years or more.'

The decline of hunting badgers for food and bristles for shaving brushes and laws to stop badger baiting have boosted their numbers across Britain.

Farmers now want to cull them, blaming the animals for a TB epidemic in cattle in parts of the country - and even spawning a storyline in Radio 4's The Archers .

To make matters worse for the archaeologists, badgers have an instinctive urge to dig - even when their sett is big enough, said Miles. 'They are little bulldozers.'

The result on Salisbury Plain, Morton estimates, is badger setts in more than 52 Bronze Age barrows and Iron Age enclosures. They have burrowed into key sites such as the late Bronze Age East Chisenbury Midden, a rare accumulation of the remains of ceremonial events, built of layers of bones, flint, pottery and manure like a giant 'chocolate cake', he said.

Each sett generates tens of cubic yards of soil and scatters remains, so the damage can be considerable. 'The layers become hopelessly jumbled ... to such a degree that a large part of the information is lost forever.'

Fences costing up to £30,000 each can be put up to help ward off the badgers, but in the time taken to get the necessary approval great damage can be done.

Conservationist Dr Pamela Mynott, secretary of the National Federation of Badger Groups, said: 'I don't think culling would be the answer ... if you take out badgers you'd probably find other badgers would thrive because there would be more food for them.'

Morton and Miles are reluctant to call outright for culling, but say a better balance between conservation and heritage must be found. 'Understanding our ancestors is fundamental,' Morton said. 'It's important to civilised societies.'

Source: The Observer 04/01/2004

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