In reply to veteye:
Always been a lot of badgers there. Nearly 30 years ago I helped on a project recording badgers on the Hambleton Peninsular - there was a concern that the large numbers of badgers there were over/in breeding as they weren't leaving the peninsular along the very narrow link to the mainland, so the population was increasing in numbers, but not genetic diversity. No idea what happened to the research, but that was the first time I'd ever seen a badger that wasn't dead on the road side. Worth a night of midge hell!