An Evening With Mr. Lumpy And Friends

If you’ve followed us for any length of time then you know we have a love for the animals.

Me (Shae) in pawticular. I LOVE taking pet and animal photography and meeting wild beasties.

For example, I enjoyed meeting Gem the Wombat (pictured below), I got a wombat tattoo soon after.

This isn’t just limited to real life. I also love to follow pets and animals on social media, like Doug the Pug and Pikelet! Recently, this has included Mr. Lumpy and Friends, a cete (group) of badgers in the north of England.

About 14 years ago, some badgers moved into Christine and Mike’s back yard. Feeding and observing the badgers has become a hobby and in recent years, Mr. Lumpy, Mrs. Lumpy, Humbug (their cub) and Baby Bumpy (random male badger) have become superstars on Facebook and Instagram. Please note – these are European Badgers… not American Badgers…

Christine and Mike, kindly, open their home once a month to hold a “badger watch” where you can *hopefully* see the badgers come for dinner. They’re wild badgers, so there’s no petting and no guarantees of a visit, but they are comfortable with the trappings of the back garden and mostly okay with having the door opened while they’re there, so the access to these stinky and adorable badgers is amazing.

I reached out to Christine when I knew that we’d be in north England to try and attend or schedule a badger watch. She was so accommodating and made sure that one happened while I visited. The cost to attend the badger watch is £20 ($26) per person. That money goes to support the badger bellies being filled by high quality nuts, seeds, fruit, cheese, eggs and biscuits.

To me, this was a bargain. Mike and Christine also volunteer with local badger charities and have recently helped rescue an abandoned badger cub. In addition, we chose to bring some biscuits, dried fruit and eggs to help further support the work they’re doing with the wildlife in their yard. In addition to badgers, there are foxes and squirrels which frequent “Narnia.”

Our badger watch was from 7pm-10pm. There’s a whole command center where Mike watches for the badgers and it’s projected on to the TV in the living room for the visitors.

Shout out to my fellow badger watchers Elizabeth, Damien, David, Emma, Melody, Emma and Sarah, as well as our hosts Mike, Christine, Coco and grumpy kitty (not to be confused with Grumpy Cat). Not to mention my awesome friend, Stef, who stepped up to come along when hubs had to work.

We saw 3 of the 4 badgers. First was Humbug, then Baby Bumpy (who came the closest and honestly would probably move in with Christine and Mike if they’d let him) and finally, THE MR. LUMPY! They have different characteristics which Christine points out, but Mr. Lumpy is the most distinctive with cuts and a cabbage ear.

And here’s a video of Mr Lumpy having some dinner:

Fun badger facts:

• The females aren’t monogamous. They appear to be territorial though since Mrs. Lumpy marked Mr. Lumpy the other day with her urine on her way by!
• Females can regulate their fertility and can have cubs by different males in the same litter.
• Females clear out the bedding in the sett (a badger burrow) each day to air it out. Sadly, sometimes a baby might get swept up in the shuffle. We wonder if that’s what happened to a baby badger that Christine helped rescue a few weeks ago named Bumblebee. So, “don’t throw the badger out with the bedding!”

I purchased a few goodies (a pin and a couple of cards) at the “gift shop” (tea towels, mugs, etc. on Mike and Christine’s table) to remember my visit. Finally it was time to go. I was so sad to not see Mrs. Lumpy, but to have gotten to see three European badgers in the wild was amazing!

I HIGHLY recommend a visit to a badger watch in Stockport if you’re up that way. It was well worth the evening, pictures and experience.

Here are a few more photos of Humbug, Baby Bumpy and Mr. Lumpy