Habitat

The badger can be found all over the uk from the woodlands to farmland banks to our own back gardens.

Distribution in the uk

Can be found throughout the british isles but more frequently seen in the south and west of the country.

  Months seen

All year round but is less active in the winter.

Food eaten

Earthworms and other invertabrates as well as fruits and small mammals depending on the time of year.

Habits

Badgers in the countryside they seem to be more shy and harder to watch but the town (urban) badgers seem to be a lot more tame and take food from right under our noses . They have been pursecuted for the spread of tuberculosis in the countryside and several times peoples have tried to get a uk badger cull passed badgers are seen as a pest by many garden owners because of the damage they can cause also alot of badgers have to face new dangers because of humans building housing and roads through there regular routes leading to lots of badger deaths which can destroy a badger colony but without badgers our countryside it would not be the same .

 After the sun has gone down  the badgers emerge from there setts slowly checkin the air for unusual smells and listening for sounds that will alert them to danger or safety when they are sure there safe badgers usually begin to groom , play and change the bedding from the sleeping and breeding chambers and then leave the sett to feed. Badgers are territorial and will fight to defend itself against other badgers from other colony's fights can be nasty and servere injuries can be caused and the loud screams of a badger fight can be chilling if heard but not seen.

Tracking

 At dawn or dusk you may see badgers leaving or returning to the sett but to track where the badgers regular route  is to find there signs barbed wire near to a sett usually has traces of badger hair and can be telled apart from other uk mammals as they have thick black and white hairs and badger tracks can be usually found in mud and sand close to there setts the badgers footprints have big pads with long claws on there front paws and smaller claws on there back paws as the front paws are used more for digging this how to tell which way the badgers going.

Courtship

Badgers have a pecking order of dominance in their family  groups which can be from 6 to 20 badgers depending on the size of the sett and the food or dangers that are alvailable in the area .Badgers are active all year round but tend not to leave the sett as much in the winter months from December to January .They normally breed in the autumm and 5 to 10 cubs are born from March to April and stay underground until they are large enough to leave the sett and can be usually observed  playing close to the settin the summer months.

 Check out our Badger pages Below :

 PhPhotographs taken by Mark Davison ,Steve Wrightson ,Mike Mottram