Animal of the Year

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 25.09.2016

September 22nd was the autumn equinox. Now night is longer than the day until spring. Evening dusk is already so cool that the breath of the boar herd that came to the sett steamed. It is good to see how the piglets from spring have filled out and that overall the herds in the woods here are large and healthy. A few tens of kilometres away the picture is different. The pest is doing its work and herds dwindle. 

At Soosaare the raccoon dog pair has been frequent visitors. They check precisely that burrow entrance that is in front of the main camera. At 0:15 the raccoon dog looks anxiously towards the bog, probably a boar herd is the cause. The badger shows up too a couple of times. It is very suspicious, it did not even quite enter the burrow. At 0:47 seconds in the video it sniffs the burrow entrance and quickly leaves.

The badgers return home ever later in autumn, in the video we see that they arrived at the burrows at 6.30 pm. In the background a buzzard is clearly heard "Kjää, kjäää.". Closer a chiff-chaff ticks gently.

Video recorded by  aita3331 from the badger forum

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 04.09.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team 29.08.2016

The cavorting of the Soosaare badgers went on in the past week too. In the video at 0:15 one of the many noises that badgers can produce is heard. There seems to be only one badger cub from this year judging from the video records seen so far. It is not clear whether the somewhat larger playmate is one of last year’s young or even the badger female herself.

Brown rat in front of badger burrow. All, birds as well as small mammals, seem to regard death outside or inside the predator's burrow as the natural course of things. 
Video: Tiit Hunt

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 01.09.2016