All sett for a battle! Rescuer’s anguish as officials order beloved badger Harriet to leave home

NatureScot has told Scottish ecologist Graeme Wilson to release Harriet, a badger cub he rescued and hand-reared, into the wild or move her to a zoo. Wilson says she is closely bonded to people and may not cope in either setting, leaving him distressed about what will happen to her.

Wilson, 55, runs a wildlife rescue and education service in Denholm and took Harriet in April after she was found undernourished in a cattle trough near Hawick. Now nine months old, she lives in his back garden. NatureScot said it understood Wilson had agreed to release her in his garden and surrounding area after Bonfire Night, which it described as a reasonable approach.