The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about the place.
Kenneth Grahame, in The Wind in the Willows
Although this blog is intended as a diary of my experiences, it is probably useful to write a few words about the real stars – the badgers.
Badger cub
The Eurasian Badger (Meles meles), as its name suggests, is found across Europe and Asia, although appearance and habits differ slightly from region to region. It belongs to the mustelid family, so it is related to stoats, weasels, martens and otters.
A male badger is called a boar, a female a sow, and young badgers are called cubs.
Appearance
The appearance of the badger tells you a lot about the way it lives. An adult badger is about the same size as a labrador dog but with much shorter and more muscular legs. This ‘low slung’ physique is ideally suited to a life underground (so the tunnels don’t need to be so high) and for feeding off small food items on the ground.
The badger’s powerful legs and long claws make it a strong digger, indeed the word ‘badger’ possibly comes from an old French word becheur, meaning ‘digger’. One of the characteristics of a badger sett is a large mound of soil outside the entrance that the badgers have excavated when digging their tunnels.
Badger track - but count the toes!
Like all mustelids, badgers have five toes on each foot. Dogs, cats and foxes only have four, the fifth being a ‘dew claw’ on the back of the leg. This is one way to recognise badger tracks – if there are five toes, it could well be a badger (although confusingly the fifth toe is quite small and not always visible).
Visually, the badger is unmistakable, with its white face and broad black stripes running from the nose to the ears. Look closely at a picture of a badger’s face. You’ll see that the eyes are quite small and the nose is very large. This is reflected in their senses. Badgers do not see particularly well, but their sense of smell is very good – something like 800 times more effective than our own. Badgers get most of their information about the world around them through their nose.
Social Life
Badgers live in social groups of five to ten related individuals. These groups are arranged in a hierarchy or pecking order, so that each badger knows its place. The group, or ‘clan’, communicates partly by scent, and dominant badgers will often mark the other badgers with their own scent. This scent is secreted from a gland under the tail, and it seems as if the dominant badger is briefly sitting on the other. This behaviour is known as ‘musking’, and can often be seen when watching badgers.
Badgers outside the sett
Badgers are territorial (see my posts for my ongoing efforts to map badger territories). The badgers that I watch control the area around 300m from the sett. This area is marked out by scent and by latrine pits or dung piles. These are small holes into which the badgers deposit their dung, and are one of the sure ways of indicating that there are badgers in the area.
Habits
Badgers are largely nocturnal, spending their days in a burrow called a sett. Badger setts can be very large, with hundreds of yards of tunnels and many entrances. They have separate areas for living and sleeping, and even latrine areas underground.
Badger setts can be distinguished from the holes of rabbits and foxes by their size, and also from the large spoil heaps outside the entrances. Another sign is piles of used bedding outside the hole. Badgers periodically drag fresh bedding into the sett, usually dry grass but also green plants, and remove the old bedding. This may be because the old bedding becomes infested with fleas – living underground in a group means that badgers are particularly prone to fleas. The first thing a badger usually does when it leaves the sett is to sit down and have a good scratch.
Here is a video of a badger shuffling backwards as it drags bedding back to the sett:
Being nocturnal, badgers stay underground during the day and emerge around the time of sunset. The precise time varies. In the winter, when the nights are long, they will usually come out well after it has got dark. In the summer they may come out an hour or two before dusk in undisturbed areas. The whole clan may sit around by the sett entrance for a while, scratching and playing – particularly if there are cubs – before moving away to feed.
Having a good scratch by the sett entrance
Badgers tend to be creatures of habit, and will use the same routes night after night. This creates paths, which in some cases can be very wide if they have been used by the badgers for a long time. Again, these paths are a good indication that there are badgers around. If you find a path leading under a wire fence, have a look and see if there is any hair caught in the wire. You can often find grey badger hairs trapped in the fence.
Food and Feeding
Badgers prefer to live in woods, but they often live on the edge of the wood, not in the middle. This is because their food tends to live in open fields rather than woodlands.
The main food of the badger in Britain is the earthworm. This may not sound a very substantial diet for a large mammal like a badger, but earthworms are quite nutritious and they are also easy to catch. During the night, the worms emerge from the soil and lie on the grass. If you go into a field with a torch and tread softly, you can often see them lying in the open.
The badger, with its big, sensitive nose, snuffles through the grass, sniffing out the earthworms. When it catches one it often holds it in their mouth like a piece of spaghetti before swallowing it. Scientists have analysed the diet of a badger and estimated that each badger needs to eat about 160 worms a night to survive. This may sound a lot, but a badger can easily catch that many in a few hours.
Badger dung with wheat
Badgers also eat other things. In my area, where there are a lot of wheat fields, they will eat wheat and barley. You can tell that this is what they have been eating because it shows up clearly in their dung. I’ve also known badgers to eat fallen cherries from a cherry tree (stones and all!), as well as apples and all sorts of insects. Some people feed badgers, and they seem to be quite fond of peanuts (unsalted) as well as fruit and dog food.
Further Reading
This is only a short introduction to badgers. There is a lot more information about these fascinating creatures if you are interested.
To start with, there are lots of good websites about badgers. www.badgerland.co.uk is very good, as is Brock’s World, particularly for children. Both of these have a vast amount of information and some excellent pictures.
If you are interested in the welfare of badgers, the Badger Trust is well worth a look. It represents local badger groups, so you should be able to find one in your area. Many of these groups offer guided trips if you fancy going out and doing a spot of badger watching.
In terms of books, the ‘bible’ of badgers is Badgers, by Ernest Neal and Chris Cheeseman (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). This book is quite academic yet still very readable, with lots of stories and anecdotes. It is difficult to get hold of, but if you want to know all there is to know about badgers, this is the one to get. Ernest Neal was a great authority on badgers, and all of his books are very good.
Another excellent but difficult to obtain book is The Social Badger, by Hans Kruuk (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). If you want to get a deep understanding of badger behaviour, then this is full of information. Hans Kruuk pioneered many of the study techniques used today, and a great deal of our knowledge of badgers’ social behaviour comes from his work. It is also a great story of his fieldwork in Oxfordshire and Scotland, which at times reads more like an adventure story than an academic work.
Easier to get hold of is Badgers by Michael Clark (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). This is an excellent book, very readable with funny illustrations, yet packed with facts and stories. It is highly recommended for children and adults alike.
All of these books have sections on badger watching, but if you want a more detailed guide, my favourite is Mammal Watching, also by Michael Clark (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). It is quite an old book, but it is full of good information about watching badgers and other animals.
As a final word, I should of course mention Tales from the Wood, my own blog. Keep visiting for more personal experiences of a badger watcher!
I have terrible trouble with badgers digging up my garden.50 large mounds this morning.Totally soul destroying after many an hour making it nice. Any one offer advise please on what i can do.Im at my wits end.
Hi there. I sympathise with you – it sounds heartbreaking.
The problem with badgers is that they are creatures of habit and also very strong. Once they start feeding somewhere they keep on doing it. A sturdy fence will keep them out, but it does need to be sturdy, and also dug into the group so they can’t push under.
This website has some hints on badgers in the garden:
http://www.badgerland.co.uk/help/you/problems/gardeners.html
Failing that you could try your local badger group and see what they suggest.
Good luck! I hope that you and the badgers can live peacefully together somehow.
http://www.badger.org.uk/
will have all the information you might need and can provide contacts with your local badger group
we reconmend an electric fence as the only legal way to keep badgers out
heres a new widget made from your RSS
http://www.yourminis.com/minis/yourminis/spineyextra/mini:badgerman
Any suggestions about what to do about badgers that wantonly kill chickens in broad daylight?
Hi there and welcome. I watch badgers and I also keep chickens, so I can sympathise with you.
Firstly, are you sure it’s badgers? I have heard of badgers killing chickens, but to do so in daylight is very unusual as badgers are almost entirely nocturnal.
I can only advise that you take the same precautions as you would against foxes, except more so. Badgers are very powerful and will get through most fences if they want to. The best protection against both foxes and badgers is a strong wire fence at least six feet high and securely dug in at least a foot underground. Even better would be an electric fence – these keep out just about anything.
Of course a lot depends on how many chickens you have, what sort of run they live in and so on. I hope you find a solution, but please do remember that badgers are a protected species.
I have seen many Badgers throughout the years, but two night ago i came across on a wooded track a strange looking animal. It resembled from behind a large cat with a very long redish fur to the ground. (I could not see its head or feet, but was sure it was a young ginger coloured Badger). I was only four ft away from it.
Do they change colour when they get older.
Hi there and thanks for stopping by.
Excellent sighting! Brown or ginger badgers do exist (although I’ve never seen one myself). According to Michael Clark in ‘Badgers’ the technical term for a ginger badger is ‘erythristic’ – my new word for the day!
There are some pictures on the web if you want to compare. Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/nature/pages/badgers.shtml
From memory I believe that the brown colour is genetic and more common in some parts of the country. Do please let us know if you see yours again.
All the best
BWM
Friday 24th of July 2009 i was awoken at 6 am by a badger breaking in to my chicken coop,and yes it was very light. The bugger got hold of one of my girls by the time i got to it . It was like a possesed beast it would let go and was not worried about me either.By the time i got it to let go, to much damage was done and we lost her, needless to say badgers are no longer welcome in my garden. I, and everyone i tell have been shocked by this behavior i thought they ‘ate worms’!
Hi Paul,
Very sorry to hear about your poor chicken ( I keep chickens so can appreciate how upsetting this is).
It is very unusual for a badger to find its way into a chicken run. They tend to be foragers rather than hunters. They mainly eat a lot of insects, including wasps nests, worms, fallen fruit that sort of thing. The only mammal food they frequently eat are nestling rats, rabbits and mice – they do this by digging out the nests – so are generally pretty good on the pest control front. They are not qick enough to catch adult mammals or birds – though they will eat carrion.
The fact that the badger was out in daylight suggests to me that it was either elderly or unwell. Alternatively it may have accicently become trapped inside the chicken coop and been unable to get out – and took the opportunity to get a meal when the chickens came out.
What to do?
Contact the local badger group – you can find your local group by going to the Badger Trust website. If the badger is injured or in need of help they will be able to trap it and take it to the local wildlife hospital for treatment or euthanasia. If the badger was trapped they will be able to tell and find out how it got in.
How to prevent further visits.
The badger may have been attracted by the prescence of rats/mice or any waste food that is lying around.
Clear away any waste food and keep the coop free of a build up of chicken droppings to prevent these smells attracting wild animals.
Whilst badgers are strong animals they will generally try to pass beneath a fence by digging or pushing underneath it.
The simple way to stop this is to ensure that a section of fencing is turned back at 90% to the upright fence, in the direction that the badger/fox would be coming from. This is because the badger will always dig at the base of the fence, so it will therefore be standing on the fencing it is trying to lift. The turn back should extend out for at least 12″.
If you are making a new pen you can dig this in about 15cm/5″ deep but if you are attaching it to a new pen then you could just give it a good covering with soil/turf. The turn back is the important bit. When you attach the new section of fencing, make sure there is a good overlap up the old fence and that this is securely fastened. Check out the book “Problems with Badgers” which is produced by the RSPCA for more info.
Good Luck
Hi Paul – thanks for writing in. I am very sorry to hear about your chicken – I too keep chickens so I can sympathise.
It probably won’t help to say that what happened to you is very rare, but badger attacks on chickens are unusual, especially in a mild summer like this one when there should be no pressure on them to find food.
I think that Josie’s advice is excellent – I can’t add anything to it. The Badger Trust publish a leaflet about badgers in gardens (http://www.badger.org.uk/_Attachments/Resources/55_S4.pdf) and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers have advice on badger-proof fencing (http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/3315)
Hopefully this has just been a one-off event. If not, as Josie said, get in touch with your local badger group and see what they can do.
Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear about your chickens. We lost ours just yesterday to a badger so I know how you feel.
I’m feeling guilty because I should have done my research. I thought our coup was bullet proof. Our fending was dug in and turned back, but what I hadn’t known was that a badger could eat through the metal wire. To add insult to injury, after killing them all it didn’t have the courtesy to eat any of them. Just a brutal assassination. It was between 1pm and 4pm.
hi there , I had a badger get one of my girls a few days ago. It was only about 5.30pm and I caught it mid attack! The sound was horrific and I assumed it was a fox, I got such a shock when I saw the badger. Unfortunatley I was too late and he had killed one of them – two disappeared and only one was left:o( Luckily the other two showed up the next morning.
Hi Michelle,
Sorry to hear about your chickens – I know how upsetting this must have been.
I think it only fair to all badger lovers out there that I give an update on our story. We now think it was a dog that got into our coup rather than a badger. We cant be certain, but we have since seen a large husky dog with black / white coat sniffing around the coup. So badgers are back in my circle of trust – for now
Hi Michelle
I’m sorry about your chickens too. It seems that badgers do take chickens. I guess the cold weather may have made them look outside their normal food sources, but this is just a guess. The truth is that badgers are great opportunists that will eat almost anything.
All you can do is to make sure the fences are as secure as possible in case it comes back. Mind you, from the bruises you got it looks like you had quite a tussle. Hopefully that’ll put it off.
All the best
BWM
we lost 5 bantams last night to a badger was shocked to see one as we have only ever seen foxes before but the took all 5 kids were gutted me too