Watch: Nature cam films cheeky badger chasing fox around West Bromwich garden
A couple in West Bromwich were bemused to see a badger chasing a fox around their garden late at night.
The couple regularly feed a family of five badgers in their garden as well as two foxes, but the two species rarely come face to face.
That changed one night when the badger caught wind of the fox and chased it around the garden several times before frightening it off.
The incident was captured on a nature camera which had been set up in the garden after the couple started to see the family of badgers visiting their garden.
Foxes have hit the headlines in the West Midlands this week, after a fox was spotted having a casual stroll through Birmingham city centre, and another was seen trotting around outside Wolverhampton's council house.
However, the foxes frequenting this West Bromwich garden are far more timid, startling if there's a sudden noise.
The couple said: "We always thought it'd be a fox chasing a badger away, because the perception we all have of foxes is that they're cunning and streetwise while badgers are more shy, but that couldn't have been further from the truth.
"We're regularly visited by two foxes and they're very timid, often getting scared and running off if they hear a noise or a light comes on in one of the neighbouring gardens. That really surprised us.
"Whereas the badgers are far more comfortable in the garden. They might look up suddenly and freeze for a few seconds if they hear a sudden noise, but they usually go back to eating or drinking once the noise has subsided."
They went on to say: "Setting up a nature cam has given us a new insight into these species that we never would have got otherwise. It's so rare for people to encounter badgers like this and seeing them regularly is an absolute privilege.
"They're demonised a lot because of the supposed risk of TB to cattle, but 94 per cent of bovine TB is transmitted from cow to cow, and research has shown that culling 210,000 badgers has not caused a decline in bovine TB. It's ridiculous.
"You watch them on the camera and they're just like cats or dogs. They're playful. They chase each other, they roll around on their backs with their bellies in the air, they rub themselves up against trees to have a scratch. They're so full of character.
"It's a tragedy that they're persecuted like this."
