West Wales Badger Group
The Badger (Meles meles)
The European Badger is one of Britain’s largest and possibly best-loved wild mammal. With their distinctive black and white striped faces and shy gentle nature, they certainly hold appeal for most people. Yet few have been lucky enough to have actually seen a badger in natural surroundings. Possibly one of the reasons for this is that centuries of maltreatment have caused the badger to become secretive nocturnal creature that normally tries to avoid man.
By nature they are extremely clean and intelligent animals, which live together in well-ordered social groups, each with its own distinct territory.
Badgers are omnivorous and eat a wide variety of foods such as earthworms, insects, cereals and fruit.
Badgers have been present in Britain for thousands of years; their homes have been found alongside those of Cave Bear and Elk. They have managed to survive while other animals such as Wild Boar, Wolves and Bears have become extinct. However, nowadays the species faces pressures such as habitat destruction and illegal persecution.
News Updates
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Assembly votes for Badger cull to start April 2010
Badger families.
Family units or clans of badgers are made up of adults who are related to each other along with immature adults and very young badgers known as cubs.
Each clan fiercely defend their own territory, a terrain with enough food sources to sustain the whole of the family group it will include a good reliable supply of water such as a spring, stream, pond or even river.
The Badger needs to constantly forage for food to maintain its large body and eat enough to store body fat to keep it going through the lean time of Winter.
Setts.
The underground home or setts of badgers are an amazing labyrinth of tunnels and chambers, often covering a large area. They have strong powerful claws to dig their underground protective home where the whole clan of badgers live. Most setts have at least two entrances, but some have many more than this. Setts are made in hedge banks, quarries, or any bank that can give plenty of shelter, usually with a south facing aspect.
The labyrinth of tunnels underground lead to various larger areas or chambers. Some are used as dry living and sleeping areas for protection from the weather, others are for birthing where sows can give birth and raise their cubs in safety.
Some setts have been inhabited by many generations of badgers. A number throughout the country are estimated to be very ancient having been lived in by badgers for centuries.
Setts may show little sign of life within, because although badgers do not hibernate, they often stay underground for long periods when bad winter conditions prevail.
Although some setts may look abandoned during some parts of the year they are not forgotten by badgers. They will often be re-opened for use during the mating season and when cubs are being looked after underground by their mothers.
Mating.
A Badger can mate at any time of the year from February onwards, but on studying the badgers at great length April to June mating seems to be more intense. The Badger has an amazing reproductive technique of delayed implantation, whereby the sow badger after mating can keep birth time to the next Springtime.
Cubs are born underground usually between the end of November to the end of June, with February as the predominant month. Although we have known of a sow giving birth the second week in November and orphaned cubs of only a few weeks old have been brought into the sanctuary as late as August.
Cubs usually emerge from the sett at around eight weeks old. They are still dependant on their Mother for a further few weeks as she weans them and they learn to fend for themselves by foraging for their own food.
Badger laws.
To help badgers, Badger protective laws have been made where disturbance of setts in any way is against the law but particularly in the closed season between November to the end of June. All setts have a protective zone around them, that restricts access by any form of machinery from hand tools to Earth movers.
Left to their own devices Badgers can live alongside humans and other animals including cattle (The truth about Bovine TB)
Advice.
West Wales Badger Group specialises in advising individuals, Schools and Businesses about Badger/Human interaction. As great care is required when building and construction projects are undertaken, so that there is minimal disturbance of Badger groups and their setts.
West Wales Badger Group has a team of consultants experienced in survey work and advice in these areas. We have successfully completed many projects working for developers such as W.S Atkins and Molem (West Wales).
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