The Butcher's Bill
While traversing pastureland we came across this grizzly display: a number of dead moles suspended from barbed wire. We were puzzled to come up with an explanation. My first thought was of shrikes, but unless it was a shrike with a serious case of OCD it couldn't have done such a neat job of it. It had to be a person, then, but even if they were trapping moles, why would they have hung them up? The answer came by way of someone with local knowledge. Farmers pay people to come and trap the moles, which to a certain extent are a nuisance to livestock because of the holes they create, but are more feared because in their churning of the soil they are believed to bring to the surface buried strains of the devastating foot and mouth disease. The trappers then hang up their quarry in a place the farmer will pass as a proof of their work and as a bill requesting payment. Dead moles on the Coast to Coast Walk, North Yorkshire, England.
The Butcher's Bill
While traversing pastureland we came across this grizzly display: a number of dead moles suspended from barbed wire. We were puzzled to come up with an explanation. My first thought was of shrikes, but unless it was a shrike with a serious case of OCD it couldn't have done such a neat job of it. It had to be a person, then, but even if they were trapping moles, why would they have hung them up? The answer came by way of someone with local knowledge. Farmers pay people to come and trap the moles, which to a certain extent are a nuisance to livestock because of the holes they create, but are more feared because in their churning of the soil they are believed to bring to the surface buried strains of the devastating foot and mouth disease. The trappers then hang up their quarry in a place the farmer will pass as a proof of their work and as a bill requesting payment. Dead moles on the Coast to Coast Walk, North Yorkshire, England.