Study

Hand-augering to locate European badger Meles meles tunnels and chambers as part of emergency mitigation along water pipe installation works near Stanway, Essex, England

  • Published source details Adderton I.V.P. (2011) Hand-augering to locate European badger Meles meles tunnels and chambers as part of emergency mitigation along water pipe installation works near Stanway, Essex, England. Conservation Evidence, 8, 6-10.

Summary

European badgers Meles meles and their setts are legally protected in the UK. If setts are to be damaged or destroyed as part of development, humane exclusion of badgers is usually required in advance of works. Exclusion can be achieved by erecting one-way gates over sett entrances which allow badgers to exit but not regain entry. Natural England (the governmental conservation advisory body in England) recommends that exclusion is maintained for 21 days before construction work begins to ensure that the sett has been vacated. In this study, a large diameter (400 mm) water main was installed through a badger sett without exclusion of animals due to discovery of the sett only after construction work had commenced. The sett location and the presence of numerous European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus burrows interspersed with sett entrances would have made exclusion difficult. As an emergency mitigation measure, a 1.4 m deep, 40 cm wide trench was excavated 6 m from the sett entrances (located mostly in a lapsed field boundary using a combination of hand augering (to detect badger tunnels and chambers; these were then excavated by hand), followed by mechanical excavation. Subsequent to this, work to excavate the trench, lay the pipe through the sett and back-fill the trench took one week. Despite the disturbance caused by this approach, badgers were not excluded from the entire sett and the risk of killing badgers which may have been present below ground was significantly reduced; no badger or other large mammal activity was evident during the mitigation works.

All works were carried out under Natural England licence and under the supervision of an ecologist and a Natural England Wildlife Management Adviser.

https://conservationevidencejournal.com/reference/pdf/2333

Output references
What Works 2021 cover

What Works in Conservation

What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

More about What Works in Conservation

Download free PDF or purchase
The Conservation Evidence Journal

The Conservation Evidence Journal

An online, free to publish in, open-access journal publishing results from research and projects that test the effectiveness of conservation actions.

Read the latest volume: Volume 21

Go to the CE Journal

Discover more on our blog

Our blog contains the latest news and updates from the Conservation Evidence team, the Conservation Evidence Journal, and our global partners in evidence-based conservation.


Who uses Conservation Evidence?

Meet some of the evidence champions

Endangered Landscape ProgrammeRed List Champion - Arc Kent Wildlife Trust The Rufford Foundation Save the Frogs - Ghana Mauritian Wildlife Supporting Conservation Leaders
Sustainability Dashboard National Biodiversity Network Frog Life The international journey of Conservation - Oryx Cool Farm Alliance UNEP AWFA Bat Conservation InternationalPeople trust for endangered species Vincet Wildlife Trust