A few years ago I saw a pack of foxhounds find a badger in Chearsley Spinneys in Oxfordshire.

In the early hours of Tuesday two saboteurs in Gloucestershire found a badger trapped in a cage with cullers nearby.

I followed the scent a few wolflengths deeper into the woods, where I found a badger that had been dead at least three days.

'And just the other day we found a badger's set,' put in Tobe, as though not wanting to be outdone by his twin.