Badgers are members of the weasel family and have the musky odor characteristic of this family. They are opportunists, preying on ground-nesting birds and their eggs, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Like skunks, Badgers are easily identifiable by their low slung bodies, relatively small eyes and ears and their characteristic black and white striped faces.

Badgers are about 15-30 inches long and can weigh as much as 35 pounds. They are largely found widespread in Britain but are most common in the south west, rare in East Anglia and only thinly distributed in Scotland. Badgers are active at night, remaining in dens during daylight hours, but are often seen at dawn or dusk.

Being found at elevations of up to 12,000 feet (3,600m), Badgers are great eaters of earthworms, and will dig for them enthusiastically, particularly in dry weather. Creatures of habit and unable to adapt to change, they are rarely seen during the day, but forage for food at night. Badgers are related to skunks, martens, and weasels.

Badgers are very sensitive indicators of climate change they can live up to 14 years old in the wild, but usually only live to four or five years old. Badgers can be reliably surveyed by recording field signs such as setts, hair, footprints, paths, feeding areas and latrines (dung pits).Being an adaptable species and good at exploiting the range of foods available in urban areas, Badgers are friendly animals and often live in large mixed groups in huge underground burrows called sets.

The Badger

Badgers like to build their setts into sloping ground in woodlands, especially where the drainage is good and the soil is not too heavy to dig. These are very powerful animals, but are not aggressive unless provoked. They have a rather ferocious appearance when confronted, and often make short charges at an intruder.

Badgers breed in summer and early fall, but have delayed implantation, with active gestation beginning around February. They may occasionally kill small lambs and young domestic turkeys, parts of which they often will bury. Like almost all wild creatures, normally, they have an instinctive fear of man.

Badgers have a life span of 11-13 years in captivity. Badgers burrow for much of their food. In a documentary film Land of the Tiger, a honey badger in India was caught on film making use of a tool. Though, the honey badger is not born with these vital skills for survival. The Killer badger is a creature found in a number of modern urban myths from Basra (Al Basrah) province, Iraq, where it was said to have attacked both people and livestock. The latest surveys show that there are a quarter of a million badgers in the UK, unevenly distributed across the country.

How are Skunks related to Badgers?

They are closely related to skunks, martens, and weasels. They may sleep through several days of inclement weather, as do skunks and bears, subsisting on fat stored in the body but they do not experience the physiological changes characteristic of true hibernation; namely, considerably reduced rate of respiration and heart beat, lowered body temperature, and insensibility. Originally, the stink badgers were classified as skunks, even though that made them the only skunks in Asia. They were then grouped with the badgers, but recent research has suggested that they may indeed be more closely related to the skunks after all. Badgers also feed on skunks, reptiles, rabbits, snail, insects, eggs of ground-nesting birds and an occasional carcass.

The Badger as a Mammal

The European badger (Meles meles) is one of Britain's largest most distinctive and possibly best-loved mammals. It is the only British mammal to have legislation specifically covering its protection. A large proportion of their diet consists of earthworms, but they are opportunistic foragers and will also feed on fruit, berries, small mammals, birds, carrion, insects and other invertebrates at various times of the year, often when earthworms are difficult to find. Earthworms are their main food but they also eat beetles, fruit and berries, small mammals, slugs and bulbs.

Badgers cannot simply be pushed from one area to another, so it is important to extend the initial survey beyond the boundary of the proposed development in order that an assessment can be made of the extent of the territory and productivity loss that may result. They are members of the Mustelidae family of carnivores, which also includes the otter, polecat, mink, ferret, stoat, weasel and pine marten. Badgers are not, however, endangered, and may be responsible for millions of pounds of damage to buildings, farm equipment and crops annually. Being quite noisy with a range of grunting, whickering and other sounds, badgers are particularly partial to strawberries and raspberries and may damage soft fruit crops. They are popular with the general public, if not with farmers, and societies exist to protect the species.