Patrols of badger cull zones attempt to fish out unlawful activity

The cull of badgers is due to end in Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire in the next few days. People opposed to the cull have been patrolling daily, looking for wounded badgers and signs of unlawful activity.

Volunteer Ian Mortimer explains what they are looking for in Dorset.

Culls have been licensed to run for six weeks in an area of each county. They had all started by early September, so will come to an end in the next week. Our environment correspondent Duncan Sleightholme, has followed a patrol in Dorset.

As the cull comes to an end, the determination of volunteers to protect badgers in Dorset remains as strong as it was when the licence was issued six weeks ago.

Every night they meet to hand out maps of walks in the cull zone and spread out across the county. They hope to find the marksmen being employed to shoot badgers and disrupt their work by, merely, being present.

The Dorset for Badger and Bovine Welfare group says it is a peaceful organisation opposed to the mass slaughter of animals in a misguided attempt to tackle bovine Tuberculosis in cattle.

I walked with them on public footpaths through land they believe was in the cull zone. Volunteers look for signs of badgers, bait and traps. It seems unlikely they will come across marksmen in places the public can access, but they hope that they will.

We are walking in the day, but at night they say it is a lot more challenging. A volunteer who tells me only that her name is Sonia says:

There's discussion on this walk that ministers and farmers are ignoring the science, that culling badgers makes it more likely that surviving animals will disperse, taking TB to new areas. Farmers argue they simply want something done to tackle the disease and ministers repeat their statement that the cull is part of a wider strategy to tackle Bovine TB over 25 years.

It could be several weeks before Defra says whether targets have been met this year. But the thing everyone really wants to know, though, could take several years to emerge; whether culling badgers is leading to a reduction of TB in cattle or not.