30 DAYS WILD: THREE - BADGER'S SKULL

Most years, if you register to take part in The Wildlife Trusts' '30 Days Wild' challenge, you are sent an action pack - a calendar to fill in, stickers to put on it. This year, because of the virus, they are sending it out by email and you have to print your own. My printer is broken. Huh!

One of the suggestions in my downloaded pack is to make a nature table - and there's a squared chart with suggestions of what to put on it . . . feathers and fur, petals and grasses . . . I'm not going to be doing that but if I concentrate, I find my house is already a sort of modest nature table so in the spirit of the challenge I thought that, over the course of the month, I'd introduce you to a few of the things I have lying around.

On the first square you are invited to place 'Rocks, stones, fossils and bones'; so here is a badger's skull. It comes from Hampshire (I did not find it myself) and is nearly 60 years old. It lives on the bookcase.

Every so often I mention iSpot for the interest of people who have not already come across it. It was started by OPAL and the Open University. The idea is that when you take photographs of plants, insects, birds, fungi, mammals, fish . . . you can upload them. If you know what you've seen, you say. If not, others will help with the ID. It's free to use and the agreement is that the Open University can use the photos you've submitted if it finds them useful. In the process, an interesting catalogue of natural history is accumulating.

While preparing this post I had a bit of a crisis. Is it definitely a badger's skull or could it have belonged to a fox? So I put it on iSpot to find out.

I confess I can't work out how iSpot works in different countries. The UK and Ireland go together. That much is clear. But when I looked at contributions under the heading 'Help With Global Identifications' I found a couple from South Africa, one from Scotland and one from Berkshire (which is in England). I'm not sure what 'global' means then in this context. And I'm assuming it doesn't work from everywhere. But for those in the UK and Ireland (and South Africa) it's very useful. If you are accessing it from other parts of the world . . . well, I don't know. Maybe there's a way the site can tell where you are and you will get appropriate instructions. Try it. (And perhaps you will let me know how you get on?)

I put photos of the skull on iSpot and at the point when I'm writing this, two people have agreed it once belonged to a badger. One of them also made a very important point - that I should have put a ruler or something in the photo to show its dimensions. It's true. I should have thought of that and should have done it automatically. I will re-photograph with a ruler or measure-tape. When I do, it will show that the skull is five and a quarter inches from end to end.

P.S.

1. Here's something you might like to do as one of your own wild-life related activities; enter for the 'Isolation Wildlife Photography Awards'. The closing date is June 8th 2020. There are no prizes. The organisers are hoping the challenge in itself and the quality of the judges will draw you in.

2. The latest addition under the 'Identifying Things' tab at the top of the blog is the People's Trust for Endangered Species - Key species and habitat index page. (How to offer practical help to creatures like hedgehogs and chafer beetles along with information about other projects which aim to support animals like Tamarind monkeys and stop the trade in rhino horn.)

It's not too late to join '30 Days Wild'. Click the badge to register. 

30 DAYS WILD
Today's act of
random wildness
is to put bones on a
nature table.

 Tweet

Here's a link to iNaturalist . Similar in intent to iSpot and used by people in the USA and South Africa and other places round the world.