Badger

The badger is a short-legged mustelid with grey fur, a distinctive black and white face, and black legs. They are widespread across Britain but are thinly distributed in Scotland. Badgers can eat several hundred earthworms a night and are one of the only predators of hedgehogs. 

Taxonomy chart

Animalia - Chordata - Mammalia - Carnivora - Mustelidae - Meles - M. meles

Conservation status: UK Red List

GB: Least Concern

England: Least Concern

Scotland: Least Concern

Wales: Least Concern

Global: Least Concern

Summary

Diet: Omnivorous but taxonomically classified as carnivores. Mainly earthworms, but also invertebrates, carrion, small mammals (young rabbits and mice), soft fruits, nuts, cereals, roots, bulbs, and tubers. Occasionally hedgehogs. 

Habitat: Mixture of woodland and open country, towns and cities. 

Size: Length: 75 – 100 cm, Tail: 15 cm, Weight: 8 – 12 kg.  

Lifecycle: Average lifespan: 5 – 8 years. Maturity is reached around 1 year; however, females will not have their first offspring until their 2nd or 3rd year. Mating can happen all year round but mainly occurs from January to May and from July to August due to higher fertility in females. Litter size ranges from 1 to 5 cubs, with 2 or 3 being common, and are weaned around 12 weeks. 

Conservation concerns: Badger crimes (e.g., baiting, shooting, poisoning), badger culling, and increasing rates of housing and road development threaten badger populations despite the Protection of Badgers Act (1992).  

Terminology

Sett: the correct term for badgers’ den. 

Nest: Daytime rests occasionally made by badgers to sleep above-ground when they don't return to the sett - usually in summer and made of loose collections of whatever bedding material is around. 

Delayed implantation/embryonic diapause: a reproductive strategy where the development of the fetus is slowed down to almost a standstill. See the biology section for more details.  

Superfetation: the event of having an existing embryo and fertilising more eggs simultaneously. See the biology section for more details. 

Geography 

Badgers are widespread but are most common in the southwest. They are rarer to the north and east and are thinly distributed in Scotland. They are absent from the Scottish islands, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Scilly and the Channel Islands. 

The preferred habitat of badgers is a mixture of woodland and open country, but they can be found in towns and cities. In the latter, they need suitable cover to dig their setts, and nearby gardens and parks to hunt for food. 

Biology 

Badgers are the largest land predator in the UK, their length being 75 – 100 cm, with a tail of approximately 15 cm. They usually weigh between 8 – 12 kg. The heaviest badger recorded in the UK was found in Durham and was a male weighing 27.7 kg!  

Badgers have a black and white striped head, which is a well-known visual characteristic. The fur in the badger's upper parts is grey, and the fur on its throat, legs, and under-parts is black. Their forelegs are well-developed, and the forepaws bear long strong claws suitable for digging.  

Their lifespan is on average 5 – 8 years, but in captivity, this can be longer. It is said that Ruth Murray, a woman who took care of many badgers and is known as the ‘Badgers Champion’, kept a pet badger who lived for 19.5 years.

Badgers can mate throughout most of the year, but they only have one litter a year. Normally, badgers will mate either from January to May or from July to August when females are the most fertile. Cubs can be born starting from mid-December, but it is more common for them to be born between January and March. Gestation is six to eight weeks; however, the female badger can have 11 months between mating and birth, probably due to delayed implantation (see below for more information). Litter size ranges from 1 to 5 cubs, with 2 or 3 being common, and are weaned around 12 weeks. A litter will consist of 1 – 5 cubs, but more commonly will have 2 – 3 cubs. Cubs tend to be born in early to mid-February and will emerge out of the sett for the first time when they are around 12 weeks old. At 16 weeks old, the cubs will display most adult social behaviours which include scent marking and grooming. 

Reproduction in badgers is fascinating due to two aspects: delayed implantation (also known as embryonic diapause) and superfetation.  

Delayed implantation means an egg is fertilized soon after mating, but the cub will not be born until several months later. This is because, after mating, the fertilized egg will develop into a blastocyst (an early fetus) after which its development slows down to almost a standstill. In badgers, the short days in December or early January trigger hormonal signals which cause changes in the womb allowing the blastocyst to implant in the wall lining. After this, normal development continues, and it will eventually become a fully formed cub.  

Superfetation allows badgers to increase the number of cubs they produce. After successfully mating, female badgers can have a blastocyst in the womb while releasing more eggs. This means the female can mate again and become pregnant with several embryos. The badger is one of only six mammals that has superfetation where all offspring are born at the same time with only one pregnancy (other species use several pregnancies).  

These two features allow badgers to maximise the number of cubs in a litter. Mating with several males increases the chances of fertilising an egg and having blastocysts of several ages and sizes increases the chances of a successful pregnancy. Another advantage is that it reduces the risk of male infanticide (males killing cubs) since the male badger is fooled into thinking all cubs belong to him. Other advantages that have been suggested include allowing setts to keep more males since females can mate with multiple males. This provides more workforces to obtain bedding, avoids male harassment, and increases the genetic diversity of the sett and general badger population.  

Ecology 

Badgers have a very varied diet, but the main component is earthworms. Earthworms make up around 60% of a badger’s diet, and an adult can eat over 200 earthworms in a night! When worms are scarce, badgers will eat snails, slugs, and soft fruits such as raspberries and blackberries. Occasionally, badgers will kill and eat hedgehogs if other sources of food are running low. They are the only native predator capable of opening up a hedgehog when it is rolled up, in order to bypass its spiny defences. Although badgers are sometimes blamed for the decline in hedgehog populations, this isn’t backed by science.  

Badgers live in setts, which are networks of underground burrows and tunnels and will house a mixed-sex group of 4 – 8 animals. A sett will consist of a main sett, where most of the badgers’ time is spent and young are reared, and smaller, outlying setts, which are used as safe places to retreat to when foraging. A sett can be occasionally used, in which case it will often have single- entranced tunnels, or can consist of vast, ancient underground complexes with multiple entrances extending from 20 to 100 metres or more. Such large setts can have more than 50 entrances and take many years to create and are passed down through generations, some being more than 100 years old.  Setts will also have a latrine, a shallow dug pit, which is near the territorial boundary. Badgers will deposit scents in their droppings, and scents are used to also tighten bonds between social groups. A social group of badgers living in the same sett is also known as a clan. Badgers are unique since individuals of such a clan will forage for food independently, unlike other social groups of animals who might work cooperatively.   

Badgers are mostly nocturnal and do not hibernate but reduce their activity during periods of cold weather. They are also important ecosystem engineers, as they create habitats and refuges for other wildlife and help to increase biodiversity. Soil health is fostered through their foraging, soil turnover, latrine creation, and sett building. This stimulates natural vegetation and plant diversity, and they disperse seeds through their droppings. When building setts, badgers create spoil heaps which retain moisture as opposed to their surrounding areas. This provides a habitat for amphibians, invertebrates, fungi, plants, small mammals, and insects, all of which either represent the start of the food chain or are essential for pollination. The increased soil moisture also reduces the risk of wildfires. Besides being the home for badgers, setts provide a refuge for many species which are associated with them: pine martens, red foxes, rabbits, wood mice, and voles. Mostly, these species exist in harmony with the badger in the sett. Finally, setts provide a stable thermal environment for many species. This is becoming increasingly more important in times of climate crisis and extreme weather conditions.  

Conservation 

Badgers are listed as “least concern” by the IUCN, however, this is on a global level and not specific to Great Britain. There are only a few studies which provide contemporary population estimates for badgers in Britain. Badgers are among the most legally protected British wildlife, whilst also being the most persecuted British wildlife species. 

Badgers are at risk of badger culling and wildlife crime and are at risk from increasing housing and road development. Badgers face a range of wildlife crimes, which can be malicious (purposeful and often violent and organised), negligent (harming badgers and setts without malicious intent), or cyber-enabled (for example, promoting badger persecution online). The current badger cull in England has been underway since 2013 killing over 230,000 badgers to control bovine Tuberculosis (bTB), an infectious respiratory disease which affects cattle. However, studies show positive and negative results of badger culling on the disease in cattle. On the one hand, there was evidence of decreased bTB rates within proactive cull zones, but on the other hand, and quite important, was the finding that bTB increased in the areas surrounding the cull. The Mammal Society opposes the current cull policy, since in its current form in England, it is an unsustainable and disproportionate response to bTB with little evidence that it will provide a substantial benefit in terms of reducing the disease in cattle. Finally, development projects can result in the loss of habitat for badgers and can lead to an increase in road casualties as badgers are often victims of road collisions. 

History  

Badgers appear throughout the archaeological record of the British Isles, although always in low numbers. One of the first occurrences of badger remains was in a cave system near Cheddar, dating to 60,000 years ago. Badgers were hunted and skinned for their fur, but occasionally also for meat and bones. Evidence for skinning can be found through specific cut marks on the bones of past badgers.  

In folklore, badgers are the symbol of persistence, confidence and strong will. This probably happened because humans saw how fiercely badgers would protect their setts. In the 16th century, it was believed badgers could protect you from witchcraft.  

However, in folk tales, badgers can be bringers of bad luck. A rhyme dating 200 years ago says that if you hear a badger call, and then hear an owl hoot, you will soon perish. Another rhyme says badgers can bring either good or bad luck depending on how they cross your path. If the badger walks across the path you just walked on, you will get good luck. If it walks across the path ahead of you, and it scrapes up a bit of earth, you will get bad luck and perish soon.  

Nowadays, the exact number of badgers in Britiain is unknown. Up-to-date and accurate data about influences on badger population levels is lacking, which is especially needed after the introduction of the badger cull in England. In 1988 there were estimated to be around 42,000 social groups of badgers, and just under 200,000 adult badgers. By 1997 this had risen to just over 50,000 social groups and 310,000 adult badgers. 

Identification and surveying 

Footprints: Broad kidney-shaped pad, with 5 toes lined up in front, front feet being larger and the claws longer. Often the fifth toe does not show up, and the print may have only four toe marks. The toes are arranged in a line which is characteristic of badger footprints, other carnivores have toes arranged in an arc around oval or three-lobed pads. The width is 4.5 – 6.5 cm. When a badger walks, it places its hind feet almost exactly on top of where it placed its front feet, sometimes leading to footprints with 8 – 10 toes.  

Feeding signs: Snuffle holes are small pits (10 - 15cm across) in the ground made by the badger’s snout as it searches for worms and beetles. These pits typically are conical in shape with the material dug out on more than one side. These holes often have flaps of moss which have been levered up to access worms in the surface soil but are still joined by a 'hinge'. 

Setts: Badger setts can be recognised by smooth polished sides around entrance holes, the presence of fresh bedding such as grass near the entrance, freshly excavated soil heaps around entrance holes and signs of trampling and/or footprints at entrance holes and down into sett.  

Latrine pits: Badgers defecate in small pits in the ground called latrines. A latrine might consist of one to several pits and can be found next to hedges, fences, trees, and other features of the landscape. 

Badger paths: Paths can be recognised from signs that moss and lichen have been worn off the ground and any deadwood crossed, due to the repeated passing of the badger's low-slung body. 

Guard hairs: Guard hairs are long, coarse hairs which form the outer layer of fur. They are distinctively oval in cross-section, making them hard to roll between finger and thumb. No other mammal has guard hairs like this. Hairs may be found in spoil heaps or caught on logs, brambles or fences along badger paths. They are around 7cm long with a white with a dark band just below the tip approximately 10mm wide just below it. The hairs are also quite tough, and don’t break easily when tugged or bent. 

Scratching posts: Badgers often start their nightly excursion by scratching a dead tree trunk, stump or post to give their tendons a stretch, as well as to leave scent marks, as they have glands between their toes. 

Surveying period: Year-round, but the optimum time is February to April. The second most optimal time is October. Surveying is generally a sett survey, but the animals can be observed via night-time hides and the use of trail cameras positioned near a badger path or sett entrance, provided this is not a camera with a flash or red light, and is only positioned where it doesn't cause interference to badger movement or behaviour and with landowner permission. 

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