Find out what they eat, where they live and how to spot them. The flash of a red squirrel leaping from branch to branch is an unforgettable, but increasingly rare sight in UK woods. Find out all about it, from how it breeds to what it eats. Sleepy, charming, undeniably cute. Find out where hazel dormice live, what they eat and how they breed. Appearance and behaviour Where to find them How to spot them Threats. Quick facts. Common name: badger Scientific name: Meles meles Family: Mustelidae Habitat: broadleaved woodland, farmland, towns and gardens Diet: worms, invertebrates, small mammals, fruit Predators: adults have no predators; cubs sometimes taken by foxes and large birds of prey Origin: native.
What do badgers look like? What do badgers eat? Badgers: what do they eat? Find out more. How do badgers breed? Did you know? Where do badgers live? Signs and spotting tips Badgers are strictly nocturnal and extremely wary of humans.
During warm summer weather they may emerge from the sett a short while before sunset. Setts: One of the best ways to spot a badger is to locate a sett and quietly wait for the inhabitants to emerge, usually around dusk. Position yourself downwind of the sett if possible, as this will prevent the badgers from picking up your scent. Always maintain a respectful distance when badger watching as these are shy animals and it is against the law to disturb them and their setts. Most important is the main sett, where breeding and most other activity takes place.
You can spot a sett by its large entrances and mounds of excavated earth outside. You can watch badgers at a sett quite legally as long as you take care not to disturb the animals or their home: sit downwind and be very quiet. The best chance to see badgers emerge from the sett is in early summertime. The Scottish Wildlife Trust organises badger watches in various locations. There are also public hides at New Lanark and Strathspey. Each night, on leaving their setts, badgers check the air to work out where in their territory worms will be emerging from the soil.
In droughts, worms stay underground and badgers must turn to other foods — animal and vegetable. Ancient woodland has the highest densities of earthworms, but worms remain in sufficient numbers to support badgers even where woods have gone. A territory is typically around 70 to hectares where the habitat provides a good food supply. The territory may be much larger in less productive habitat.
Badgers have long been persecuted in Britain. During the summer months, activity is mainly concentrated around the setts and the feeding areas and travelling between locations. During the autumn, badger feeding activity increases to accumulate body fat reserves for the winter.
A secondary peak in the number of road casualties occurs at this time. Badgers live in a system of interconnected tunnels and chambers called a sett. Every badger clan has one main sett, which is used for breeding and is usually relatively large. Well-established setts have been excavated by several generations of badgers, with some setts known to be occupied for centuries.
The size of the sett is influenced more by the soil type than by the number of animals living within it. In addition to the main sett, most clans have one or more secondary setts.
Secondary setts are less important to the badgers than main setts, but they are useful nonetheless especially if the main sett is disturbed or there is a breakdown in the social structure within the clan.
Disused setts may be taken over by rabbits or by foxes, and both these species have been known to co-habit with badgers in occupied setts. In the chambers inside the sett, the badgers make nests in which they sleep. Periodically, fresh bedding material typically dry grass, straw, bracken or dead leaves is collected and dragged into the sett. Setts can be located in wooded areas or scrub, although more recently there is a tendency for setts being excavated in hedgerows in areas of improved pasture.
The badger is an omnivore, primarily a forager, eating an extremely wide range of animal and plant foods. They are opportunistic. Badgers have been known to regularly visit farm buildings and gardens if there is a readily available food source. February is the peak month of the badger main mating season, but they can mate at any time of the year. Eggs fertilized after mating develop into tiny balls of cells called blastocysts.
These remain in the uterus until a trigger factor causes implantation allowing development to resume. Regardless of fertilisation date, implantation nearly always occurs in late December or early January. Following weeks of normal gestation, birth occurs from late January to early March, with the majority taking place in the first half of February. Litter size can vary between 1 and 5 normally 2 or 3. Cubs spend approximately the first eight weeks of life underground, emerging in late April or early May.
Although badger cubs are born at a time of year which maximises their chances of survival, on average only one out of every three cubs survives to be one year old. Male and female cubs become sexually mature at around months of age and may mate before the end of their first year, in areas where food supplies are plentiful. Badgers in the wild can live for as long as 15 years. However, most badgers die young and the average life span is just three years.
Badgers are usually wary of humans. If cornered, individual animals may be more aggressive. There are features common to nearly all badger setts which help to distinguish them from the burrows dug by foxes and rabbits.
Most badgers appear grey in colour on the main body, with a lighter colour on the underbelly, although some can appear to be a shade of brown on the back and side. Badgers have black hair on their legs and chest. Some differences in hair colouring can be staining caused by environmental surroundings and this is more noticeable in underbelly hairs.
Yellow staining from the subcaudal scent gland can be seen in older adults. Badger eyes are relatively small and are black. There are no noticeable colouring differences between male boar and female sow badgers. 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, which can almost give the appearance of different species:. The eyes will probably be red or pink in colour. The leucistic badger is a condition where there is a partial loss of pigmentation which gives the animal an appearance of patches of light colour on the hair. There is no loss of pigmentation in the eyes, so the eyes will be black. This helps distinguish the difference between an albino badger or leucistic badger.
The erythristic badger has mainly sandy or gingery colour hair on the back and sides and the hair on the underbelly can be a shade of red. The eyes will normally be light brown in colour but in some cases they may have a reddish appearance.
A badger which is extremely rare is the melanistic badger and sightings of this animal are uncommon. The pigmentation of a melanistic badger is mainly black. The eyes will be black. Badgers have been living side by side with hedgehogs for centuries but will occasionally prey on them if their main food sources of worms and grubs are not abundant.
Hedgehogs are currently undergoing a sharp decline in rural habitats and unfairly, badgers are often blamed.
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