Annex A
COSTS OF BADGER MORTALITY TAGS TO MONITOR
ILLEGAL CULLING
PURPOSE
To radio tag badgers in the "survey only"
areas of the trial in order to gain a quantitative measure of
the level of any illegal badger culling.
RESOURCES REQUIRED
Mortality tags, to be implanted sub-cutaneously,
and of a type designed to emit a low power signal for radio location
and a high power signal enabling rapid location when an animal
dies. In order to generate sufficient data, it is estimated that
approximately 50 badgers would need to be tagged in each treatment
area. Therefore 500 tags would be required for the "survey
only" areas.
One set of recording equipment, consisting of
receiver, data logger, scanner and aerial, would be needed for
each treatment area.
In addition to the cost of equipment there will
be the manpower needed to catch and radio tag badgers, monitor
recording equipment, recover badger carcasses when necessary,
and carry out post mortem examinations to establish cause of death.
Assuming that the work would continue for the
five years of the trial, the cost could be in excess of £1
million.
PRACTICAL PROBLEMS
There are certain unknown factors associated
with this proposal. These are:
1. The surgical procedure required to implant
radio tags requires Home Office approval. One requirement is that
tagged animals should be monitored closely for at least 24 hours
after release. This may well prove to be impractical.
2. There is no certainty that the mortality
tags will work on badgers. There may be problems with signal reception
across undulating terrain and possibly through the ground.
3. There could be logistic/legal difficulties
retrieving tags from badgers which die underground in setts or
on land to which we do not have access.
PILOT STUDY
Given the likely costs and unknown factors,
if this option is to be considered, it would be necessary to conduct
a small-scale pilot study to address the above questions and provide
a more accurate estimate of likely costs.
COSTS
It is estimated that 50 badgers would need to
be tagged per treatment area and that there is a 30 per cent mortality
rate. (No allowance made for illegal culling)
| Cost | Per Treatment Area (£) | For 10 Treatment Areas (£) |
| Monitoring Equipment | 4,000 | 40,000 |
| Tags | 10,000 | 100,000 |
| Staff Costs | 32,100 | 432,000 |
| Post-mortem @ £74 each*1 for 15 badgers each year | 1,100 | 11,000 |
| Secure accommodation for staff and equipment | 45,000 | 450,000 |
| Two Land Rovers @ £20,000 each | N/A | 40,000 |
| Total | 92,200 | 1,073,000 |
*1 A more detailed post-mortem is required than
those within the trial, so the £37 cost has been doubled.
|
