I am Kairo Kiitsak, a young nature enthusiast. I will tell you a little story about a thrilling encounter. On the evening of May 21st I decided to go for a walk in the Simuna forest in Lääne Virumaa, hoping to see wild animals. The weather was moderately warm and sunny. When I had entered the forest I heard at once that someone rustled among the branches. On closer inspection it turned out to be a roe deer. After the meeting with the deer I moved quietly on to the peat bog where I noticed grouse cocks. I didn’t disturb them and moved on along the road.

Finally I got out of the forest and a view across farmlands opened up. Just in case, I had a look to see if some wild animal might have come to forage at the forest verge. To my surprise I again noticed far off near the forest a roe deer that had come to the grassland to find food.

I moved slowly along the forest edge towards it. I was looking for a suitable place where the animal would not be likely to see me. I found it and started to record the deer with my video camera.

Suddenly I again heard rustling, this sounded very close, and I noticed a large badger with fluffy fur coming out of the forest on to the field. It did not notice me and kept walking on in my direction. .

Finally the badger was some 10 metres away from me and only then it saw me. After that we stared at each other for some minutes. The badger started to behave strangely. I suppose that a badger may behave like this in a threatening situation. Probably it told me to retreat.

I tried to move as little as possible and to keep calm. Finally, after the inspection, it decided to leave. As a rule badgers are shy of humans and don’t press close to us. This encounter was a first for me and certainly will stay in my memory for a long time.