Information about the Badger 

Badgers are short, stout, powerful animals that live in underground 'setts' that can extend well over 50 metres long! Members of the mustelid family (which includes pine martens, otters, polecats, ferrets and the wolverine), the European badgers' range extends from Britain, across Europe and to the middle east.

Clan

In the UK, badgers live in mixed-sex groups of between four and eight animals in underground 'setts'. A social group living together in the same sett is also known as a 'clan'. While badgers tend to live in groups, they do not always act cooperatively with their fellow clan members. Badgers are unique in this way as individuals in a clan will forage for food on their own, unlike other social groups of animals who might hunt together and reap the benefit as a group.

Senses

A badger’s sense of smell is a particularly important sense as it plays a vital role in communication. Badgers have several scent glands which produce a variety of odours, used for distributing information like warning signals and mating status.

 Scents produced are also used to tighten bonds between social groups, with studies suggesting that clan members have similar scents. Badgers also deposit scents in their feces and will typically defecate in shallow dug pits known as latrines, which are found on territorial boundaries.

Badgers distribute their scent information through techniques known as squat marking (dipping their rear and lifting their tails) and allo-marking (marking each other). Can you identify this behaviour in our video library?

Diet

The diet of a badger is extremely varied, with badgers being described by expert Professor Tim Roper as "opportunistic omnivores". Earthworms are the core of the badger's diet, often by as much as 60 per cent. In a single night, an adult badger may eat well over 200 worms!

 When conditions are harsh (hard frosts, dry or barren areas of habitat), worms can be scarce. Cleverly, badgers are able to shift to other food items, including snails, slugs and soft fruit like raspberries and fallen blackberries. Badgers will occasionally eat hedgehogs if normal prey items are not abundant - read more about badgers and hedgehogs below.​

Reproduction

Badgers mate at almost any time of the year, but due to an unusual reproductive technique, known as delayed implantation, they have only one litter a year. Litter size ranges from one to five cubs, with two or three the more common number. Cubs are born in chambers lined with bedding material that the females (sows) gather and drag into the breeding chamber. Straw, hay, grass, fern are all commonly used, which keep the cubs warm. Most cubs are born in early to mid-February and will emerge above ground at around 12 weeks. At 16 weeks, cubs will be displaying most adult social behaviours, including grooming and scent marking.

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Badgers and the law

Badgers are protected and so are the setts (burrows) they live in. Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, in England and Wales (the law is different in Scotland) it is an offence to:

• Wilfully kill, injure or take a badger (or attempt to do so).

• Cruelly ill-treat a badger.

• Dig for a badger.

• Intentionally or recklessly damage or destroy a badger sett, or obstruct access to it.

• Cause a dog to enter a badger sett.

• Disturb a badger when it is occupying a sett.

But there are exceptions. Licences to undertake some actions can be issued if it is justified, for example where a badger sett is found on a proposed site for a road or housing development.

Bulldozing a sett in the way of a new road would risk killing or injuring the badgers, so Natural England or Natural Resources Wales may grant a licence allowing the badgers to be carefully excluded, making them move elsewhere in their territory.

For information about the badger cull visit the RSPCA Bovine tuberculosis page. and Defra's policy on reducing bovine tuberculosis can be found on their website.

Best Practice Guide for the controlled shooting of badgers in the field can be found by clicking our link - HERE