About Badgers

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The badger in Britain is the European (Eurasian) Badger (Meles meles) with its distinctive white head marked with two broad black stripes running from the muzzle back over the eyes and ears to the nape of the neck. Albino (white) and erythristic (ginger-red) varieties occur occasionally. Although almost everybody can instantly recognise and identify a picture or a sketch of a badger, remarkably few people have ever seen one alive in the wild.

Badgers are shy, nocturnal mammals, living in social groups (sometimes know as clans) in underground tunnel systems and chambers called setts, some of which are known to have been occupied for hundreds of years. A social group may consist of anything from a single breeding pair to as many as sixteen or eighteen individuals. They are creatures of habit, relying heavily on an acute sense of smell to identify other badgers, find food and warn them of danger. They also have very keen hearing, but poor eyesight.

Badgers are very clean animals, frequently participating in mutual grooming and changing their bedding of fresh or dried grass and leaves regularly. They do not take food underground, and use dung pits (latrines) usually well away from the sett. The dung pits can also be used as territorial markers. 

Contrary to popular belief badgers do not hibernate, but in periods of very cold or wet weather they may stay underground for days at a time.

Adult male (boar) badgers can be up to a metre in length, and weigh 10-14 kg (22-30 lbs). Females (sows) are usually slightly smaller and lighter. Weight will increase in the autumn when badgers are laying down fat reserves to see them through the lean winter months. Both sexes have powerful bodies and long, strong front claws for digging.

Although some authorities describe them as Britain's largest carnivore (they are of the order Carnivora), they are actually omnivorous. Their diet consists mainly of earthworms (about 80%), but they also eat invertebrates, fruits, nuts, roots, cereal crops, frogs and small rodents. They happily forage from bird tables and dustbins given the chance, and will also eat carrion. Badgers love honey, and have been known to raid wild bees nests. They will even risk raiding wasps nests for the succulent grubs!

Badgers mate at any time of year, but due to the females' ability to delay implantation of the fertilised egg most cubs are born in January to March, with the peak being in mid February. Between one and five cubs are usually born, with the average being three. The cubs remain underground for about eight weeks after birth, and are totally dependant on their mother for at least eight to twelve weeks. They are not fully independent until about 10 months old, and are sexually mature at about 2 years of age.

Badger populations are self regulating, according to food availability. Periods of drought, when the ground is baked hard and earthworms stay deep underground, can produce severe mortality, especially in cubs.

Nationally road deaths account for about 20% of the adult population each year.  In addition, illegal persecution of badgers results in many dying painful deaths.

Badgers have been persecuted for centuries and remain so today despite full legal protection for both them and their setts. Badger digging and baiting with dogs is one of the many threats badgers face. Lamping badgers at night using high powered lights is a crime that goes largely undetected. Fox hunts are legally allowed to stop up setts by prescribed methods, although there is substantial evidence that some hunts do not adhere to the law. Snares (both legal and illegal) can also cause severe injuries and suffering to badgers and other animals.

Any suspicious activity near a sett should be reported to the Police or the RSPCA and the Badger Group immediately.