Wildlife presenter Chris Packham has posted a heartbreaking message online after a motorist knocked over and killed his 'favourite' badger on a country road close to his home.
The outspoken conservationist took to Twitter to break the news that, earlier this week, he'd found the pregnant wild animal he'd befriended during the Covid pandemic lying dead - the creature having been hit by a car.
"I met this beautiful badger in the lockdown spring," wrote the BBC Springwatch star, attaching a photograph of the animal emerging from her sett in the woodland undergrowth.
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"I went to see her every night and slowly won her trust. I called her the 'Golden Sow'.
"She appeared haughty and was more standoffish than some of her group - this made her my favourite."
Clearly emotional, he then revealed that he'd discovered her lifeless body on a nearby stretch of road sometime late on Wednesday (February 16).
"She was still warm," said Packham. "I picked her up and sat in my car with her on my lap.
*WARNING: Some might find the image below upsetting*
"She smelled lovely, musty, sharp and of the woods. I touched her nose and stroked her head, smoothed down her ruffled fur and felt her long perfect paws. She was heavy, probably about to give birth."
He added that he took the badger's body home, laid it under a tree in the sunlight and sat "listening to everything she couldn't hear, smelling what she could no longer smell.
"She had made my heart skip beats and now hers was still forever. What a waste of such beauty."
Packham then turned his attention to the driver that had killed her.
"Its 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?"
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