Chris Packham pens moving eulogy for ‘beautiful’ badger he had been befriending before it was run over and killed by motorist
- Mr Packham, 60, called the badger ‘Golden Sow’ and would regularly visit it
- The BBC Winterwatch presenter wept after finding the dead creature
- When the badger died, he picked it up and took it to his New Forest home
- He then put it in the sun under a tree and sat beside the badger
Chris Packham has penned a moving eulogy for a ‘beautiful’ badger he had been befriending before it was run over and killed by a motorist.
Mr Packham said he ‘wept’ after finding his dead friend in the road near his home in the New Forest.
The BBC Winterwatch presenter, 60, then picked the badger up and took it home, where he put ‘the beautiful’ animal in the sun under a tree and sat beside it.
He saw the badger as his friend and had been going out every night to spend time with the animal since meeting it last summer in 2021.
Chris Packham, known for BBC’s Winterwatch, said he ‘wept’ after finding the badger in the road near his home in the New Forest
After he found the badger on the road, he then put ‘the beautiful’ badger in the sun under a tree and sat beside it
Mr Packham added: `I went to see her every night and slowly won her trust.
‘I called her the ‘Golden Sow’, she appeared haughty, was more stand-offish than some of her group and this made her my favourite.’
When he discovered the badger’s death, he said: ‘It’s a 30mph limit and a straight road – I don’t see how anyone could not see her and don’t understand why they just left her in the middle of the road.What is wrong with people ?
‘I picked her up and sat in my car with her in my lap.
She smelled lovely, musty, sharp and of the woods.I touched her nose and stroked her head, smoothed her ruffled fur down and felt her long perfect paws.
‘She was heavy, probably about to give birth.
‘She was made of the place I love, she had teased and taunted me emerging from her sett, she had held my breath as I lay frozen on her ground, she had made my heart skip beats…and now hers was still forever. I cried.
‘I couldn’t let her go.I took her home and today I lay her in the sun under a tree and just sat there listening to everything she couldn’t hear, smelling what she could no longer smell.
‘What a waste of such beauty. Not my best day. Sorry.’
Mr Packham is known for his love of badgers and has tried to stop them being culled in the UK.
The UK government claims it stops the spread of TB in areas that need the measures.
According to the Badger Trust, the the biggest threats to badgers are road traffic accidents, government sanctioned culling, wildlife crimes, developments, and habitat loss.
In 2019, it came second only to pheasants as having been the most numerous victims of road traffic accidents of any other mammal species in the UK.
It is estimated around 50,000 badgers are killed every year on roads nationally.
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