OK. Time to bare my soul a little.
Most people in Britain have never seen a badger. Many have seen a dead badger by the side of the road, but few ever see a live one. Of those that do, I suspect that most are content to enjoy the experience, to enjoy the badger as an impressive yet endearing part of our wildlife. As I’ve said before, once people see a badger they seem to become hooked. Even Ernest Neal, the undisputed authority on badgers, first came across one by accident and this led to a lifetime of work studying these creatures.
But for me it is not enough to just watch badgers. I’ve gone past the “wow – there’s a badger!” phase. I want to understand them. I think I’m becoming obsessed.
Now don’t get me wrong – it’s not a bad obsession to have. It’s quite healthy. I could be addicted to drink or drugs, but instead I’m becoming addicted to badgers. It’s a pleasant diversion from work, it keeps my mind active and stops me getting up to mischief, and most importantly it encourages me to get out and enjoy the countryside on my doorstep.
What started out as a good excuse to go for a walk in the woods has now got me learning about animal behaviour, territoriality, social bonding and the whole ecology of woodlands. As soon as I think I’ve understood how badgers work, I discover something new and realise I actually don’t know very much at all.
All of this philosophical musing has been triggered by a short walk in the woods this morning. I wanted to go out and have a look at the Pine Tree sett, specifically to see if there was any more evidence of badgers eating the sycamore bark.
Sycamore with gnawed bark
When I got to the sett I found that there was a lot more evidence of bark eating. Another tree had been ‘attacked’ and more bark was missing from the original tree. But from what I’ve seen, I’m not sure that badgers are the culprits.
The bark shows clear toothmarks – lots of them and quite small – rather than a few large claw marks that I’d expect from a badger. More conclusive was that the damage to the bark now extends to about 8 feet off the ground. Badgers are actually surprisingly good at climbing trees (and they seem to enjoy it as a game) but I think that this height is beyond them. I now need to research squirrel feeding, and see if that fits the bill. Even better, I need to spend an evening here and see if I can catch the culprit in the act.
Bark damage close up - scale in cm
Acting on suggestions from people on the Wild About Britain forum, I examined the badger dung in the latrine nearby. It seemed a bit more green than usual but there were no clear signs of bark in it. And no – I didn’t bring any home for analysis. I’m not that obsessed yet!
Badger Dung
Walking back through the woods, I came across more puzzling animal signs. For want of a better word I’ll call these ‘nests’. They were substantial piles of grass that had been pulled up and shaped into a mound, sometimes with a hollow in the middle. They are undoubtedly the bedding of some animal.
I’ve come across these before, and I wondered if they were piles of bedding that a badger had collected and then for some reason abandoned on the way back to the sett. After seeing more of them today I think that they are more likely to be nests in their own right, where an animal sleeps. I found them in dry, sheltered spots. Here’s one under a fallen tree:
Here’s one under the shelter of a pine tree:
The nests were associated with paths, but whether these were badger paths I could not say. The whole area is criss-crossed by badger paths and deer paths, and to confuse matters the badgers use deer paths and the deer use badger paths.
Are these nests made by badgers? What other animals deliberately gather bedding from distance? If they are badger nests, why are they there? Why are the badgers not safely underground in their sett? Are they used as temporary shelter? Are these badgers part of a sett, or are they some sort of homeless, ‘hobo badgers’, sleeping rough? If so, how do they fit into the territories of the other badgers?
Do you see now how this whole badger business can become obsessive? If anyone has any answers, please do let me know.
Hi Badgerman,
Those lovely big nests you found are definitely made by your badgers.
Neal calls them Day Nests – which is a good name because they tend to be made by the badgers when the weather gets hot, so that they can sleep above ground during the day.
Ernest Neal writes about trying to photograph a clan of sleeping badgers in a very large day nest. If I were u I would get out with my camera on the next sunny day and see if u can catch the sleeping beauties at it!
The day nests I have found have been built where the badgers can get warmed by the sun, perhaps where a shaft of light falls through the trees or bushes.
Even urban badgers do this, if the sett area is undisturbed, I have a pic of a badger daynest at the mouth of a large drainage pipe -right next to a school.
I love getting your blog installments, its nice to hear from some one who is as obsessed with badgers as I am.
Happy Badgering
Josie (Badgerlady)
Thanks very much for this Josie – it’s good to know that I’m not the only one!
And thanks for the information on the day nests. I must say, they did look badger-ish. I’m definitely going to have to stake these out and see what I can see. The one under the pine tree certainly looked fresh, so that’s a good candidate.
There’s enough going on with these badgers to keep me out of mischief for a long time yet…!
Hi Badgerman,
Fascinating reading as usual and your latest discovery on the stripping of bark has me foxed (sorry). There is some good reading at this link:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/forestresearch.nsf/ByUnique/INFD-6K4KAF
To be honest, the information provided in the table listing mammal damage to trees is comprehensive but doesn’t refer to total stripping of the bark as in your photograph. Deer would be my initial conclusion as culprits, especially with damage reaching a height of 8 feet.
Pehaps if you can do more research on the dentistry of likely culprits this may lead you to a positive identification – otherwise a long night may be called for. Hey Badgerman, this is where the Gamespy cameras I use would come up trumps! You could set one up targetting the tree or similar trees and you could also stake out the day nests with a camera.
Just a thought.
John (BrockOK at http://www.badperpics.org.uk)
PS! When responding to your blog using the reply box, you cannot enter data into the name, mail and website fields (or is there something I’m not doing correctly?)
Thanks John – I’ll have a look at your link. And I agree, a gamespy camera would be great. I actually looked at them when I was in the US a few years ago (where they are much cheaper) but foolishly I didn’t buy one. Damn – I need to arrange another business trip over there again.
I think I’ve sorted out the reply box issue. As well as learning about badgers I’m also having to learn about editing CSS’s! On the WordPress theme I use there is a search box at the top of the page that gets in the way, and I had edited the CSS to hide it. I seem to have also hidden the comments fields too.
Dear Badgerman,
I am interested in the concept of badger’s nesting habits. In early October in the South of France, Parc Naturel du Haut Languedoc, I woke up at about 5 am and looked out of the window to see a badger snuffling away on the driveway. It was the very first time I have ever seen a live Badger…very exciting. I watched it for a while and he carried on foraging, there are a lot of snails there so maybe that was the attraction for him to come so close to the house. There is also evidence of some creature cracking open the fallen walnuts, but it could be the wild boar as they are regular visitors to the land !!!
I went up to the forest a few days later and found a nest , very similiar to the ones in your photographs. It was made from grass and moss. It was quite big and I wonder if our lone badger has 40 winks there from time to time! The nest is in an old hut which is open to the elements on one side , so perfect shelter but a quick get away if necessary to make a sharp exit.
I have not seen him since, but my neighbours have seen a badger a few times at night, it may be the same one. There is always only one.
Wild Walks
Hi Wild Walks – that sounds idyllic – the South of France, badgers and wild boar in your garden, and even a productive walnut tree – very nice!
These badger nests are still a bit of a mystery to me. Josie, if she’s around, could probably tell you more. Your nest does sound very like the ones I found. In the UK, the consensusis that the badgers use them as ‘day beds’ in warm weather, or they may take a nap in them at night in between foraging trips rather than returning to the sett. There is definitely scope for someone to put in some observation and find out more about them.
Interestingly, Hans Kruuk mentions badgers in warm Mediterranean areas, and says that unlike UK badgers they are usually solitary rather than forming clans. This is related to food availability. He also hints that these solitary badgers are much more nomadic, having a number of sleeping sites rather than one fixed sett, as they travel further to find food. This sounds very much like what you’ve described.
Thanks for sharing – very interesting!
BWM