What do you do with your dead things?
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Category: General
Forum Name: UK Reptiles and Amphibians
Forum Description: A forum for general questions and answers relating to wild reptiles and amphibians in the UK
URL: http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3473
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Topic: What do you do with your dead things?
Posted By: Guests
Subject: What do you do with your dead things?
Date Posted: 17 Jan 2011 at 2:31pm
I put my deceased frog friend in the wheelie bin. DidnÆt fancy burying it incase I ever found it again by accident. Last summer I threw a dead shrew and dead frog over the wall and the hedgehog living right by me had them both. I didnÆt put the rancid frog over the wall though cos I thought it might make a hungry hog ill.
BTW, I rescued a starving hog about a week ago. Do you like it?
I also put a dead bluetit in the wheelie bin but when I found the hog I considered getting it out again to give it something to eat. I would have if the sanctuary people had come very late. The tit was caught in next doorÆs sweetpea netting and I didnÆt spot it when it was alive and feel terrible. I took these pics the day before I noticed it. Tragic.
Oh it's hard to spot BTW in case you haven't spotted it. That's why I missed it too.
I werenÆt too eager to get it out of my wheelie bin as hog food cos IÆd have had to have cut off the remaining sweetpea netting and I was already traumatised and also I didnÆt fancy bits of dead bird left in my pet cage after the hog had gone and having to clear it up.
So what do other people do with their dead things? Does something always come along and eat dead things and itÆs a waste of a life by just sticking it in the wheelie bin?
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Replies:
Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 17 Jan 2011 at 10:40pm
hi sue,
sorry about your tit getting snagged in netting.
and the frog stiffy.
everything dies though.
well apart from LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE which seems to go on and on forever.
wild birds often perish of shock anyway when handled.
its happened to me when ive tried helping something stuck. once with a blackbird and once with a sparrowhawk.
so you probably couldnt have helped. dont feel bad.
nice hedgehog. watch out for the fleas, lice and ticks on those though.
i hope it was eventually rereleased near where you found it. thats thought to be best practice since the animal will know its surroundings (where to find food/shelter etc) and be disorientated elsewhere.
suburbia is the best place to find them these days. not the open countryside where they have declined. partly due to badgers increasing. it was studied. i went to a FERA talk about it a few years ago.
nice to see your pix. great they are about near you.
i havent seen a hedgehog for ages!
the frogs will prefer your pond to a lake anyday. they dont like deep water or places where enemies like large predatory fish like carp lurk and herons gather. shallow, warmer water is best for frogspawn development.
toads are often found in bigger waterbodies but even they prefer the margins where its less deep.
yes frogs can home in.
dig a pond most places and theyll often appear.
as if by magic.
ive read females can smell algal blooms (good grub for their tadpoles) esp in new ponds and head for them as good places for their babies.
males call other frogs in too.
frogs and toads usually travel at night - when theres less traffic.
best to burn or bury corpses.
wear gloves when handling/wash hands after.
obviously.
although i saw a Cornishman on TV who EATS roadkills he finds. if theyre fresh
you could always try that if you get bored of stuffing your face with Pringles and chocolate.
ben
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2011 at 12:01pm
The bluetit and last yearÆs dead frog were preventable deaths though. That sweetpea netting was a death trap, it should have been taken down last autumn and not put so near the bird feeders, werenÆt the tits fault it got stuck in it. Next door have taken it down now, I left them a note. & the frog that died was in my hut. It was a smallish one and I found it in my washing up bowl there. I think it died of starvation. I think it got in through a small hole and couldnÆt find its way back out again. I go in there almost daily but never saw it ætil it died in the washing up bowl. I felt so terrible afterwards. If IÆd have known it was in there IÆd have let it out. I sealed up the holes afterwards with silicone. I prefer it when things die for a proper reason.
What the hell do you do to the birds when youÆre holding them Ben? IÆve grabbed birds before and carried them around and they ainÆt died on me. Maybe itÆs cos youÆre more scary looking than I am. (BTW, I wouldnÆt know what a sparrowhawk looks like. Do we even have them in Yorkshire? )
I went on the hedgehog rescue website (http://keighleyhedgehogrescue.com/ which donÆt seem to be working at the mo) and on there it said not to worry about fleas. I was worried about fleas cos I donÆt want my rodents to catch them and I didnÆt want to fumigate the entire house but the site said basically not to worry about them. I had the hog in my hut for a bit but the lady said to take it indoors into the warm and give it hot water bottles to sit on so I did. That was a couple of weeks ago and so far my rodents havenÆt done any more scratching than usual. A man came and picked it up and I showed him where it had come from and said the area is top sh*t for hogs and he was pleased with it and that heÆd tell the lady who runs the rescue about it but I dunno if itÆll get released back to where it came from. The lady ainÆt replied to my long email, she must think IÆm a nutter and donÆt wanna talk to me. IÆm sure itÆll be ok with her though and it was bound to die without intervention anyway, think the site said she had about 140 of them or something. SheÆs been rescuing them for years, doubt she eats them or owt.
DidnÆt know badgers were their main predator. Well I knew badgers could have them but I just figured they didnÆt live in the country cos there ainÆt enough slugs and prefer gardens. By my house is a pretty cool place for hogs cos of the undisturbed woodland and brambles and they walk through all the gardens. They usually zoom straight through my yard, in and out in 2 or 3 seconds. I had all hell on in catching that hog. You know like if one fell in my pond, do you reckon the amount of plant rootage in there would trap itÆs legs and pull it under and it wouldnÆt be able to get out? I know they can swim but if itÆs thick with plantage like in my pond, would that make it drown do you think? I was thinking about this the other day.
I think I see more squashed hedgehogs than I do live ones. The hog I found was from a brood late last summer, one of my mates up the street rescued another cos it was too small to survive the winter. I became to really enjoy the one living over the wall from me, itÆs nice to think itÆs asleep there during the day somewhere. Well unless it was the same one I gave to the rescue.
The lake near me isnÆt deep actually. Dunno about the centre of it but from the sides it only looks a foot deep. ItÆs big though. Seen a heron only a few times, never seen any fish in there but there is actually a turtle living there. It was reported in the newspaper, I ainÆt spotted it yet though but IÆd love to see it basking. & if possible get it out of there so it donÆt eat the frogs. Might have my fingers off though if itÆs a snapper and I doubt IÆd be able to catch it. BTW thereÆs lots of carp at the golf course pond where thereÆs always spawn.
Uwe, I donÆt fancy burning corpses. I donÆt like fire, I nearly set my house on fire last week by burning a candle someone gave me as a present. I panicked when the flames went huge, thank f*ck IÆd put it on my stone fireplace and not on the carpet. It burnt my stone it did. It went black and IÆd used a wire brush on it but itÆs still black. Children shouldnÆt play with fire. Might start up my own graveyard over the wall then and I could put a headstone over it so that I donÆt accidentally do any digging there in the future.
I used a plastic bag for handling that dead tit. ThereÆs something creepy about dead things, I donÆt mind touching stuff when itÆs alive but when itÆs dead itÆs like creepy and yuck. Oh and IÆm scared of spiders. I canÆt touch them either, I scream like a girl. Well I am a girl.
IÆd never eat roadkill no matter what. A duck got splattered on the main road at Christmas. The lake was frozen and and when itÆs frozen and thereÆs no visitors the ducks wander a bit and one came out onto the road and got run over. I saw it soon after it got run over, it was still alive. I saw it move itÆs head. I went for a slightly closer inspection to see what it was and saw all the blood and knew it was a gonna so didnÆt even bother trying to help that one, I left it to die. It was dead and flatter when I passed again 1 hour 30 later. I guessed the bestest vet wouldnÆt have been able to mend it even if I had tried to intervene. Bad Dad said I should have scooped it off the road and eaten that. Grim.
Thanks for sharing your superior knowledge with me Ben, I love you and I'll love you more when I get my presents.
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Posted By: kevinb
Date Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 2:53pm
Calm down you two, get a room.
In connection with your description of favouring different spawning habitats Ben, last year on my unofficial annual golf course visit to count Toads we found over 500 around the pond yet only 6 frogs.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 3:45pm
kevinb wrote:
Calm down you two, get a room.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 1:01pm
Posted By: Suzi
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 3:26pm
Are hedgehogs a preferred food for badgers? I have fed badgers here for almost 20 years and have photos of badger and hedgehog feeding together on peanuts. I've watched them moving about and the badgers seem to ignore the hedgehogs. OK artificial set up I know.
------------- Suz
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Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 9:26pm
hi suz
i dont know about "preferred" or even that direct predation was thought to be the problem - though badgers "rolling" hedgehogs open to get at their bellies has apparently been seen.
perhaps its related to competition for the same food or something else.
as far as i remember, the CSL (now FERA) study i referred to (presented at a 2 day DEFRA conference covering many topics but mainly TB/other wildlife issues) only showed that hedgehogs were less common in high density badger areas.
i dont recall theories as to WHY being ventured. or surprisingly, anyone even asking at the time!
perhaps they did-
it was a long 2 days and i wasnt used to being sat in a chair for hours on end!
badgers were already getting a bad rep and culling them was a political hot potato. to say the least.
it still is of course.
this didnt seem to help restore brock's image.
CSL were firmly against any culling.
it could have been political (not to venture theories)
but id better not go into ALL THAT.
lets just say there were big differences of opinion, rivalries and much vying for favour/funding by various bodies!
your pics sound good. exciting to have badgers AND hedgehogs visiting.
ben
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Posted By: Suzi
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 11:14pm
Ben I read about your badger training (not training to be a badger!) previously. The biggest threat to hedgehogs here, in my road, is cars. We have hedgehog years and then blank years as it seems most of them have been killed on the road and it takes time for others to move in. We all have large gardens but the stupid things go on the road and get run over. In these bad years up to a dozen can be splatted over a couple of weeks. We have not had any hedgehogs for a few years now but several badgers and a hedgehog or even two have fed here side by side. The badgers would nose the hogs out of the way if they wanted to move in on their share of the peanuts. Then the hogs hiss and might roll up but they were never intimidated by the badgers to the extent of running away. I am of course aware of the TB/badger debate and live in the south west with a high density of badgers.
------------- Suz
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Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 09 Feb 2011 at 12:27am
dont you think id make a good badger then?
whoops! sorry if ive repeated.
its just that its a very complex issue all round and whenever the subject comes up, i find conversation quickly mushrooms.
ive spent whole evenings answering questions and explaining the whys and wherefores etc to people at parties on occasion.
all because of the simple question "what do you do for a living?"
id rather have been dancing!
ive learned i reduce future questioning/argument a bit if i give my sources etc up front.
i certainly dont know whats for the best regarding TB.
active badger setts (like GCNs ) are quite common in suburban gardens in this area and even in the centre of town!
not hedgehogs though.
however, as youve noted, they do seem to "boom and bust" a bit.
so perhaps theyll return sometime.
yes im afraid last time i looked at the stats, Devon was the worst bTB county.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 09 Feb 2011 at 9:25am
Posted By: kevinb
Date Posted: 09 Feb 2011 at 10:13am
I seem to remember a study was made of hedgehogs, they were fitted with transmitters and followed on their nightly prowls marking where they foraged for food and slept etc. Nearly all the study animals ended up being eaten by Badgers.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2011 at 10:09am
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2011 at 10:14am
I talked to Bad Dad about why badgers eat hedgehogs and he said all the dead hogs heÆs found just have their skins left and that the badgers eat them for food and it ainÆt that they want to murder them cos theyÆre competition for food. & he said that they could eat peanuts side by side and that the badgers wouldnÆt eat the hogs then cos the peanuts are far tastier. Suzi, hope the hogs you saw with the badgers made a quick exit after peanut time.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2011 at 10:17am
Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2011 at 7:09pm
if youve got Sky then they are sue. seen occasional documentaries and hedgehogs are frequent on uk animal sos/rescue type progs.
unlike injured grey squirrels.
which is odd.
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Posted By: Suzi
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2011 at 7:46pm
Yes peanuts are probably easy food as you don't have to peel it! I put out dried fruit with the nuts in winter for extra nourishment. Like with herps there are things you learn by watching. Mother badgers bring their cubs to eat and a mother will lie down dog like (head resting on front paws) and let the cubs eat first. I once made some chapatis that turned out a bit tough so I put two out for the badgers. Now the chapatis were flat on the ground and I thought it would be interesting to see how they tackled them The answer was walk up to them press a foot down firmly on one edge and flick it up and then grab it in the mouth. How did they know to do this? Presumably chapatis are not everyday badger food. Grey squirrels don't have the cuddle factor do they?
------------- Suz
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 10:57am
Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 6:51pm
great pix. thanks for posting BS.
liked the 1st 1 best.
DOWN the tree
theyre such agile animals arent they?
Grey Squirrels remind me a bit of these Internet Forum Trolls ive read about on Wikipedia recently;
IE
increasingly COMMON, often viewed as DAMAGING to the environment, very PERSISTENT and frequently UNWELCOME.
but also SKILFUL and (for some) INTERESTING/AMUSING with an irreverent and admirable SPIRIT.
i suppose squirrels are easier to physically locate and shoot legally with a rifle than trolls tho*.
HERES A TRUE SQUIRREL STORY;
when i was a kid a squirrel came in through the open front door of the house one hot, summer afternoon.
my dad, my sister and i, searched top to bottom trying to find it.
with no luck at all. no glimpse or sound.
after a while we gave up looking.
reasoning that since we had so many open windows (owing to the heatwave) it had probably found its own way out.
so we all sat down on my bed for a rest.
then dad noticed a strange lump under the otherwise perfectly-made blankets and bedsheet.
(duvets werent invented chez-Rigsby yet - this was the 70's you know!. )
he then ever-so gently prodded the protrusion with his index finger and (wondering aloud) said slowly,
"whaaatssss................................ that???!!"
we all jumped out of our skins as the squirrel shot out from under the covers like a bullet, exited the window to the porch roof, briefly posed there cheekily (as if sticking the V's up at us)
and then leaped bravely into the upper reaches of our nut tree.
many feet away.
a very memorable wildlife encounter.
not to mention...
ben
* not me. ive never owned a gun.
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Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 12 Feb 2011 at 7:07am
I FIND PLENTY OF DEAD STUFF ON THE ROAD WHERE I LIVE
USUALY TAKE IT HOME AND EAT IT IF IT AINT TO FLY BLOWN.
SAVES ON THE FOOD BILLS KEITH
------------- LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 12:49pm
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2011 at 9:57am
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