Today we have the first of a number of guest blogs on badgers by Eddie Palmer Chairman of the charity Scottish Badgers. Here Eddie gives a general introduction to these controversial, rarely seen mammals, the threats they face and how his charity surveys for them.

BADGERS – WHAT TO SAY?

What a topic!

It feels very strange writing about a creature that I have been close to, watched, videoed, written about for 35 years now, and thinking – ‘what shall l say now, isn’t it all known?’

When a friend asked me what I had been doing the other Saturday, I said ‘chairing our Badger conference’, and she replied ‘What, all day, and I have never ever seen one in my 80 plus years of life!’

And that’s the crux of the problem, maybe ‘out of sight, out of thought’, as one has to put oneself out to see badgers – well, sometimes. Badgers are our fourth largest UK species (after red deer, roe deer and beavers), and one of our oldest. They have been persecuted continually since the 1400s, and maybe before that.

Overall, we are probably at a tipping-point now – badgers could possibly be totally wiped out as a species in the UK in the near future, if the current badger culls do not cease.

Two important factors;

• Badgers are probably only surviving in the UK nowadays because they can firstly live in almost any type of habitat, and they are truly omnivorous, feeding on almost anything
• But because they tend to live in semi-permanent setts, they are very vulnerable

So, what happens to badgers?

A whole variety of acts by man;

• They are killed in very large numbers, very expensively (£7k a time) by the badger cull in England, due to go on for a further 4 years
• Badgers are persecuted by fox hunts, because foxes tend to go and hide (sometimes) in badger setts, so the setts are (illegally) torn apart. Hunt supporters also enjoy killing badgers.
• Human development, whether road or house or rail development, destroys large tracts of land
• Forestry and agriculture are responsible for unfortunately being also very destructive of good habitat, making it difficult for badgers

So, you can see that badgers are really upon against it

So where and how do badgers live?

It is important to state some basic facts, as there is so much misinformation abroad.

A badger sett is the structure where a badger lives. A badger social group occupies a territory which can be a kilometre around the sett or more. The main sett is used for breeding and a daytime retreat. It may have an annexe close by for over-spill. There are usually a few subsidiary and outlier setts dotted in the territory, and these are small with one to a few entrances.

It is NOT the case that 40 entrances in a sett means 40 badgers!

Such a sett might well have 5 to 9 badgers in the family. Badger setts are composed of a network of tunnels and chambers, often excavated into a slope; they usually have D shaped entrances and a large spoil heap of excavated soil. There may be paw prints, hair, paths, dung-pits or old bedding discernible nearby, but the absence of these is not reliable evidence of absence of badgers – such signs can be absent in winter e.g. when activity levels are low, the ground is frozen, where badgers live in rocky clefts, or when breeding is not ongoing.  On occasion a badger might take shelter under decking, a shed or porch; this is usually temporary. Setts also occur in disused industrial areas, hedgerows or remnants of rough cover. 

Surveying – normal practice:

• Small groups of 2 to 4 when surveying ensures safe, quiet and non-intrusive practice
• Surveying should be carried out  in the earlier part of day, in order to avoid leaving human scent near a sett or paths. Human scent during the late afternoon could deter badgers from coming out at night to feed, which could cause risk to nursing mothers and dependent young
• Survey sessions, and training for this, are undertaken on all types of land – it depends on the reason for the survey. Badger groups survey for local authorities, utilities, national and country parks, private landowners etc.
• If people want to watch badgers in their own natural environment I’d encourage them to contact one of the organised badger watches in various parts of the UK, to get the most out of their experience and to be sure wildlife is not disturbed
• Anyone wanting to use trail cameras, a great help in learning about badger life, should deploy badger-friendly methods. Where facilities exist for badger-watching via a CCTV link, these are least likely to disturb badgers. Some holiday accommodation providers around the country offer these facilities.

Survey records are kept in a secure and protected way. They are used only for the proper purposes of the charity, such as to assist investigating authorities in the case of a crime, and in order to prevent harm to setts and badgers in relation to human activities including development planning, construction, new roads, forestry, agriculture and other land uses.

Further blogs

• Bovine tb
• Effects of farming, forestry and building development
• Snaring, game-keeping, shooting
• Badger baiting