SETT PIECE

from Dales Life Winter 2021

COLLECTED WORKS

Do you have badgers living nearby? Now could be the time to find out, says Brian Pike

t’s often assumed that badgers hibernate in winter, but that’s not the case. Like most of us they’re reluctant to venture far from home in harsh weather, but during milder spells they’ll be out and about foraging much as usual.

Badgers are nocturnal creatures, and winter isn’t the most comfortable season to stake out the woods at dusk in the hope of a sighting. On the positive side, muddy conditions in fields and byways, and especially fresh snowfalls, make it much easier to find animal tracks than at other times of year, enabling you to get an insight into badger activity in your area without the tiresome necessity of sitting out in the cold.

Badger paw prints are very distinctive, and it’s hard to mistake them for those of any other medium-size resident British mammal. They’re large and broad – 6cm or more wide – and show five forward-pointing, long-clawed toes arranged in a gently curving row. The first and fifth toes are level with each other.

Cat, dog and fox prints, by contrast, only register four toes. Otter prints show five toes but the prints are narrower, the webbed toes splay outwards and the first and fifth toes aren’t level with each other.

If you happen to spot a badger on the move, even at a distance and in poor light, its silhouette is equally unmistakeable: bulky, powerfully built and low to the ground, with ears tight to the head and a stubby tail. Despite their stocky appearance, badgers can cruise along at a relatively brisk gallop, keeping up a pace of 15–20mph when they need to cross open ground.

MYSTERY MASK

Typically an adult badger measures 70–100 cm from nose to tail, with males generally larger than females. In terms of colouration both sexes are identical, with silver-grey body hair (although albino, pure black and ginger individuals occasionally occur) and a distinctive black and white ‘mask’.

It’s not entirely clear why badgers have such high-contrast facial markings. One theory is that these evolved as a warning to potential predators – which in former times would have been wolves – that behind the mask stands a tough, determined, muscular animal with razor-sharp claws that’s probably best left well alone. Nowadays badgers don’t have any natural predators left in the UK. As is the case with much of our wildlife, the main hazards they face come from traffic, loss of habitat and deliberate human intervention – and in particular licensed culling to prevent them transmitting bovine TB to valuable herds of cattle.

To what extent culling is necessary or effective is a matter of bitter dispute, with different interest groups weighing on either side. The National Farmers Union, for example, resolutely opposes the Government’s intention to restrict culls after 2022. Meanwhile the National Trust is equally determined not to allow culls to take place on its land, instead supporting a programme of vaccinating badgers against the disease. There’s no sign that the rival parties will meet in the middle any time soon.

DIGGING FOR DINNER

Badgers are omnivores – in other words they will potentially eat pretty much anything – but primarily they use their powerful physique and sharp claws to grub up earthworms, which constitute by far the largest proportion of their diet. Badgers also eat insects, slugs, snails, fruit, nuts, frogs, toads and small mammals including rabbits and hedgehogs.

The extent to which badgers predate birds and birds’ eggs has been widely debated, but nowadays most experts believe that these represent only a very small fraction of a badger’s diet, and are only resorted to when earthworms are scarce – in hot, dry summers, for example, when earthworms have retreated further down into the ground than normal.

As well as using their prodigious paws and claws to dig for food, badgers use them to excavate labyrinthine underground dens, known as setts, in which to sleep during the daytime, sit out bad weather, and raise their young. Setts are usually built on sloping ground in woods or copses.

Setts are passed on from generation to generation, and are extended and modified over the years. Some are huge, with numerous sleeping chambers, multiple entrances and tens, sometimes even hundreds, of metres of tunnels. Dry grass, straw, leaves and moss are collected and used to line the chambers to keep them warm. This bedding is changed regularly, and piles of discarded material can often be found outside entrances to setts.

SETT ASIDE

As well as the main sett, badgers often build one or more smaller outlying setts for temporary occupation during particular times of year – for example to take advantage of seasonal food sources, or to act as overflow accommodation when the main sett is crowded with youngsters.

Badger cubs are generally born in late winter or early spring, in litters of up to five. After a couple of months they make their first expeditions outside the sett to play and explore their environment. If you have the patience to sit out in the woods, early summer is a good time to see badger families on their nightly excursions.

Badgers have poor eyesight, so they probably won’t see you. However, both their hearing and their sense of smell are extremely acute, so you’ll need to take up a position downwind of the sett and stay very still.

Whilst conditions for badger watching may not be ideal, winter is an excellent time to start doing your research. Now that the leaves have fallen, entrances to badger setts are easier to spot in the undergrowth. And of course keeping an eye open for badger prints will help you identify regular badger trails and get an idea of whereabouts your local badgers like to spend their time foraging.

Images © Klein & Hubert and RSPB