Inflating Badgers?

[Speicher]

As mentionned earlier, it could be the stomach contents that cause the inflation -

The Meles has just eaten.


Arch or Uncle Phil might be needed here.

 

[Arch]

Decomposition gives off various gases, esp methane, so I imagine it's that that does it.

Even if it hadn't just eaten (although I think they probably forage all the time they are out and about), I suspect the gut bacteria would still be giving off gas.

 

[Arch]

How nice Phil, that you and I are considered experts on rotting badgers....

 

[rich p]

I think I saw a film once where a bloke was trying to inflate a beaver but not a badger.

 

[Speicher]

How nice Phil, that you and I are considered experts on rotting badgers....

I thought you might be the authority on the latin name for badgers.

 

[bonj2]

any news on that photo?:

 

[Fnaar]

Coincidentally, I actually saw an inflated dead badger yesterday! I would have taken a pic, but it was halfway up the biggest climb on my ride, and I didn't want to stop.

 

[rich p]

any news on that photo?:

Here it is Bonjy baby!

 

[Amanda P]

Arch or Uncle Phil might be needed here.

I'd been avoiding this thread on the grounds that I usually read the forum over lunch. Biologist I may be (and those University dissections do tend to remove squeamishness), but I'd rather avoid rotting corpses and sandwiches at the same time.

However, I'm here now, and I'm flattered to be considered an expert on anything.

I think.

Anyway, European badger is Meles meles.

For reasons too complicated to go into, I have recently been researching the gases given off by dead things. Methane is among them. Two combinations of gases and vapours reported in the literature I thought you might be interested in are putrescine and cadaverine. Google them and you will learn all you ever wanted to know about why dead things blow up, and with what.

 

[Riverman]

How lovely rich.

 

[Wigsie]

I think I'm quite sceptical about this. Not quite sure i believe badgers do inflate - i've never seen one

Ha ha

The total lack of understanding you have with anything from the 'natural world' never stops amusing me.

 

[Arch]

Anyway, European badger is Meles meles.

I assume on the assumption that it eats honey, although I thought they ate worms and stuff - I guess pretty much anything will eat honey, if they can get it (including me!)

 

[Amanda P]

They are particularly fond of peanuts and golden syrup, especially if mixed together. But they normally eat worms, and, as you so rightly say, stuff. (They are clever enough to know that you find lots of worms in cow pats of a certain age, much to the annoyance of dairy farmers). They also enjoy apples. I used to work in an orchard where, if you drove around of an evening in September, there'd be badgers lumbering off in all directions ahead of you like rabbits scattering, some with windfalls still in their mouths.

I think the similarity between Meles and mel is a co-incidence. Meles is just what ancient Italians called a badger!

 

[theclaud]

it may have been carted off to be tested for bovine TB

There are other explanations. I have a couple of friends who work on parasitic worms at the NHM. One of them is always after specimens of Mesocestoides, and is an avid roadkill snatcher. The important question is whether a Bulgarian bloke with a big nose has been seen looking pleased with himself in the vicinity.

 

[Arch]

They are particularly fond of peanuts and golden syrup, especially if mixed together. But they normally eat worms, and, as you so rightly say, stuff. (They are clever enough to know that you find lots of worms in cow pats of a certain age, much to the annoyance of dairy farmers). They also enjoy apples. I used to work in an orchard where, if you drove around of an evening in September, there'd be badgers lumbering off in all directions ahead of you like rabbits scattering, some with windfalls still in their mouths.

I think the similarity between Meles and mel is a co-incidence. Meles is just what ancient Italians called a badger!

So maybe the Romans thought they ate honey? And 'stuff' of course, very important dietary component for all creatures, stuff.