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Published Spring 2004

An original article published in The New Forest County Magazine

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MEMBERS OF THE NEW FOREST BADGER GROUP; MARTIN NOBLE, KEN JAMES, LOUIS RUMIS, MANUEL HINGE AND THE BADGER TRUST

When I started watching badgers in the Forest, some seventeen years ago, I read a number of books to extend my knowledge. However, I soon realised that our local badgers had not read the same books that I had and did not necessarily follow the lifestyle that those who were researched for the books had done. Now, all these years later, many of my questions remain unanswered. However this leads to even greater fascination in these stripey-faced tenacious and courageous creatures.

In the Forest we are lucky to have a Badger Group which, so far as we know, is the oldest in the country and records of numbers have been kept since the early 1970s. It appears from these records that, in spite of the fact that we rarely have the problem of badger diggers here, contrary to other areas of the country, numbers .have remained much the same.
 

Badgers at home
These are social animals that live in a group underground in a series of runnels and chambers known as a sett. In the Forest most groups are made up of boar, sow and possibly two youngsters, although at certain times the numbers in larger setts can increase to ten or eleven animals. In many other parts of the country social groups are much larger. The entrances to the runnels are usually badger-shaped (a letter D on its side) whereas rabbit or fox entrances are smaller and narrower. However, as badgers can cohabit with both rabbits and foxes, this makes distinction difficult.
 

Other signs to look for are clear paths to and from the entrances, large spoil heaps of removed soil and stones, or old bedding of bracken and dried grasses pushed out of entrances plus badger prints and latrines. Badgers are very clean and dig small pits into which they defecate and, especially in winter, these are often made close to the sett. Banks are popular .places for setts, which are usually in woodland but can also be in more open areas.
 

You may find other holes within the vicinity of a sett known as annexe, subsidiary sett or outlier depending on the number of holes and closeness to the main sett. Many of our setts could be hundreds of years old and may be empty for periods and in use at other times. One of my unanswered questions has been when they leave a sett where do they go? So far I have not found a satisfactory explanation. When twelve badgers in one sett, for which I am responsible, left it, I started looking at all the other local sett to try to find out where they could have moved to. What I have found since i that when numbers are up in one sett often other local setts are well populated too and numbers in these do not rise substantially when one is suddenly abandoned. They may move away when food supplies are short but there has not been a corresponding rise in numbers in another sett, either occupied or unoccupied that I am aware of.

Badgers appear from their sett

 picture courtesy of Badger Trust

For me nothing can beat the thrill of watching cubs playing outside their home in the late spring. Two to three cubs are generally born to a badger sow in February and remain underground until they are around eight weeks old. When they first emerge they remain outside for short periods only and are carefully watched over by Mum and sometimes Dad. If any danger threatens, a sow will pick up a cub by the scruff of its neck and push it back down one of the entrances. Badgers can mate at any time of the year although just after cubs are born is a particularly popular period.

Sows exercise delayed implantation, which means that after mating fertilized eggs are retained in the uterus in a state of suspended development. The eggs then begin to develop towards the end of December so that the cubs will be born at the best time for healthy development. Badgers can mate at any time of the year although just after cubs are born is a particularly popular period. Sows exercise delayed implantation, which means that after mating fertilized eggs are retained in the uterus in a state of suspended development. The eggs then begin to develop towards the end of December so that the cubs will be born at the best time for healthy development.

Tasty menu morsels
Badgers are omnivorous with a wide range of foods ruffs taken. In most places their diet consists of over 50 per cent worms, sucked up like spaghetti. That is why farmland is popular. Here, where worms are less in evidence, beetles, insects, fruit, nuts, wasp nests, plants, (bluebell bulbs are popular) as well as carrion are taken. In autumn badgers spend much time feeding to put on fat reserves to see them through the winter.

Badgers do not, as such, hibernate but one local expert, Alistair Kilburn noticed that the older and more well covered badgers would remain below ground in bad weather for quite long periods. Younger, slimmer members of the group need to come out daily to maintain as much body weight as possible.

A dead badger lies beside
the road. Accidents are
reported to Martin Noble of
the New Forest Badger Group,
he keeps records and rescues injured animals.

Badger problems
Local badgers do not come up against many of the problems that those in other parts of the country experience. Road accidents account for by far the greatest number of badger deaths' in the country and railways are also to blame as well as snares (forbidden in the Forest). Badger digging and baiting these animals with dogs are thankfully rare here too. Large numbers of badgers are killed in the name of research against bovine tuberculosis in parts of Britain. However, this does not seem to have provided an answer to this problem as TB has increased. In fact part of the present trials where they have endeavoured to eradicate badgers on and near TB infected farms appears to have increased the problem. Is it the movement of cattle around the country, rather than badgers which rarely move far, that is the answer to its spread?

Until a reliable test for bovine TB in cattle is found and an inoculation system put into operation, the problem seems likely to continue. TB has not been found in badgers or in cattle in the New Forest.
 

Badger damage
Badgers are protected by law and they, or their setts cannot be interfered with. Particularly in very dry spells, such as last summer, hungry badgers are more likely to enter gardens and root about in the lawn for leather jackets and cockchafer grubs, creating small craters in the lawn surface. Personally I would be delighted to have badgers as visitors but there are those with beautiful bowling-green lawns or fruit or vegetable patches who are not so pleased. If you wish to attract badgers or have problems with them entering your property you can obtain a useful booklet from the Badger Trust, 2b Inworth Street, London SW11 3EP by sending an A5 stamped self-addressed envelope.
Alternatively it can be down-loaded from the Badger Trust website at www.badger.org.uk
 

Watching badgers
Not long ago we had a number of people in the Forest who had regular badger visitors and were happy to show them off to others but, so far as I know, this is no longer the case. If you would like to watch badgers and take responsibility for their local well-being the best answer is to join the New Forest Badger Group where there are plenty of experienced people to advise you on how to go about it.

With thanks for extra information to Dr Elaine King of the National Federation of Badger Groups, Julia and Martin Noble and members of the New Forest Badger Group Committee.
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THE NEW FOREST BADGER GROUP
This group, which I have mentioned earlier, is responsible for checking many of the Forest's setts for damage, for keeping records of animal numbers, and generally for the protection of our badgers. This requires both day and evening visits.

The Group meets usually three or four times a year for events and has a half-yearly newsletter. However, watching badgers is not obligatory as you will usually get a chance to see Julia's orphans before they are released again.

Membership costs £5 per annum. If you are interested call Julia Noble, who is membership secretary, on 01425 402211.

Badgers are surprisingly
good at climbing despite
their bulk and size.