BADGERS CUMBRIA

About Badgers

Badgers have called Britain their home for 250,000 years, living alongside humans and other native plants and animals for all that time. They once once co-existed with wolves, brown bears, arctic foxes, and wolverines, all of which once roamed Britain! Today’s badgers are now Britain's largest land predator.

Their long history in Britain makes badgers a key part of our natural heritage. The cultural significance of badgers can be traced through place names throughout the nation – have you ever strolled along a Badger Way or ambled down Brock Lane?

Badgers are members of the family Mustelidae, which includes otters, wolverines, polecats, ferrets, martens, and weasels.

In the UK, badgers live in mixedsex 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'.

Badger setts are an underground network of tunnels and chambers. They vary from occasionally used "outliers", which often have single entranced tunnels, to larger, ancient underground complexes with multiple entrances. Many setts can take years to create and are passed down through generations –some setts can be more than 100 years old. These are the family homes, used, maintained and enlarged by generations of the same social group.

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. They 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.

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!

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.

It is currently cub season!

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.

Badger Biology

The badger can grow up to 1 metre in size and has loosely fitting skin, which makes it difficult for an antagonist to get a firm grip of the badger in a fight. A thick layer of subcutaneous (under the skin) fat develops during autumn in order for the badger to live off fat reserves when going into torpor during winter.

Body weight of adult badgers is variable and can depend on several factors; the differing seasons, the area in which they live, the amount of food available and their age. Badgers are at their heaviest in late autumn as they fatten up for winter. They then feed less, spend more time inactive underground, and their weight falls away. Sows (females) are at their lightest after giving birth around February.

The short dark and white hair on the face gives the UK badger (Meles meles; European or Eurasian badger) its iconic striped features, with black ears tipped in white. Badger cubs are born with very light silvery hairs and after a few days the facial stripes appear; they then develop to have the same markings as adults.

There are other forms of pigmentation within the badger population including Albino (white with pink eyes), Leucistic (loss of pigmentation, black eyes), Erythristic (sandy, gingery colour) and Melanistic (mainly black and very rare).

Living with Badgers

Anthropogenic (human-induced) activity is the leading cause of species decline in Britain, and badgers are no exception. Badgers and their setts are protected in law.

The 1992 Protection of Badgers Act was initiated due to the unprecedented levels of speciestargeted persecution, in the form of badger baiting and digging, faced by these unassuming nocturnal mammals. The Protection of Badgers Act is concerned with animal welfare as a priority, compared with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which focuses more explicitly on wildlife conservation.

The rapid rise of property and road development across England and Wales means that Planning and Development now represent one of the most significant risks to local badger populations. The Protection of Badgers Act (1992) strictly prohibits any malicious or negligent act which disturbs badgers or their homes (setts)

In addition, every year, an estimated 50,000 badgers are killed on our roads. Badger Trust collates reports of road traffic casualties to identify hot spots where mitigation should be placed or identify new setts. Occasionally the prompt investigation of road traffic collisions reveals the presence of orphaned cubs nearby. Badger Trust and local Badger Groups keep data on road deaths and this data can be crucial in helping badgers locally.

Whilst badgers are one of the most persecuted native species in Britain, the good news is that there is space for badgers and humans to live sustainably, side by side. If we take positive steps to value badgers as equally deserving of a safe home, food, and space to roam, we can create a sustainable future for badgers and humans to thrive.

As a living symbol of the British countryside, these secretive and mysterious mustelids continue to bring joy to those lucky enough to encounter them in the wild. And badgers play an integral and

vital part in the UK's ecosystems.

Their role as ecosystem engineers contributes to habitat heterogeneity and promotes biodiversity. Badgers maintain and regenerate soil health through foraging and sett building, and they help to disperse seeds through their dung. They create new habitats for amphibians, invertebrates and pollinators, small mammals, plants, and fungi, and their setts provide refuge for other wildlife too. All of these elements are vital for healthy ecosystems.

Badger Champions are needed now more than ever as biodiversity threats continue to impact badgers and their habitats.

Local Badger Groups

Badger Trust has an affiliated network of over 50 local badger groups, all run by volunteers and all working to deliver services to help badgers on the ground. This ‘badger army’ is a lifeline for badgers, as the volunteers who give their time and energy to provide services help and often save badgers –here and now.

Badger Groups are involved in all aspects of educating about badgers on a local level and can include activities such as; sett surveying, recording, and monitoring; offering advice and information, talks and educational resources to schools and the local community; the rescue of injured badgers; running stalls and fundraising at events; responding to threats to badgers, their setts and habitats by commenting on planning applications; working with other local organisations, supporting Badger Trust on their national campaigns and much more.

New Group in your area

We are looking to set up a new group in this area. The group will have full support from Badger Trust. Groups Co-ordinator (groups@badgertrust.org.uk).