The European badger (Meles meles) is a medium-sized carnivorous mammal; a member of the mustelid family, which also includes stoats, weasels, martens and otters. Found throughout Britain, badgers remain a controversial species, particularly since legal protection granted in the early 1990s led to an increase in both number and distribution. The conditions in Britain are good for the species and, as a result, they may form family groups called clans, which can sometimes concentrate damage and complaints. They have been implicated in the spread of bovine TB in the UK and, as a consequence, are the target of on-going government-led culling operations. They have also been arraigned in connection with the decline in Britain's hedgehog population and damage to cereal crops, particularly during periods of prolonged dry weather.
That which follows is an overview of European badger natural history. Please select a subject from the right-hand menu to learn more. Certain aspects of the badger's natural history that warrant for detailed discussion have been split from the main article into their own Q/A.
European badger at a glance
Appearance: Badgers are low-slung and very muscular animals well adapted to a semi-fossorial lifestyle. Adults are usually 70 to 100 cm (2-3.5 ft.) long, while weight varies considerably with season. Adults typically weigh 6 to 7 kg (13-15 lbs) in summer and 12 to 14 kg (26-31 lbs) during winter, while the average adult weight in autumn is about 12 kg and that for spring is 9 kg (20 lbs). The long fur of the body is a dark silvery-grey on the back and flanks, frequently interspersed with lighter brown hairs that can give a beige or even gingery appearance. The underside, from the neck to the tail and including the legs, is black or grey-black, while the flat 12 cm (5 in.) tail is typically light/silver-grey to white. The species is easily identified by characteristic black-and-white striped face (mask), with a stripe of black fur running from each ear down the face almost to the black nose. The chin and ear margins are also white, as is the back of the head/nape. White (leucistic and albino), melanistic (dark), erythristic (red/ginger) colour phases have been described, although erythrism may be a form of leucism as these individuals often appear “washed out”.
Distribution and Abundance: Found across most of Europe, excluding north Scandinavia, Iceland, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, east into parts of Asia and as far east as China. In UK, the species is present throughout the British and Irish mainland, although distribution appears patchy in central Scotland, as well as on several islands, including Isle of Wight and Arran. Comparing PTES (1995) and Mammal Society (2018) survey data, sett density has more than doubled over the past two decades and the 2018 analysis estimated there to be just over 560,000 badgers in England, Scotland and Wales combined. The highest densities have historically been in south-west of England, although recent culling activities aimed at combating bovine tuberculosis have likely altered this.
Habitat: Primarily a species of unimproved grasslands and broadleaved woodland in Europe, including Britain, but can be found on agricultural/horticultural land and appear to be making more use of suburban and urban areas (e.g., parks and gardens) in recent years. Badger setts are often associated with cattle because the short pasture is ideal for worming.
Longevity: Average lifespan likely little more than two or three years, although seven or eight may be reached in the wild. In captivity, they can live for almost 20 years.
Sexing: Morphometric studies on skeletons suggest there's no accurate way of sexing in the field without inspection of the animal's underside for mammae and/or genitalia. Older males may, nonetheless, present with very broad heads and frequently multiple scars on their heads and rumps from fights with other males. Overall, patient observation of an individual's behaviour, coupled with morphology, can determine sex with reasonably accuracy. Males are called boars, females sows, and young of the year are cubs.
Activity: Primarily nocturnal, with some crepuscular (dawn and dusk) tendencies. During the summer months, newly independent cubs may be found, some distance from main sett, during late afternoon. The time of emergence seems often to reflect local disturbance or persecution. Much less active during the coldest months of autumn and winter, during which they spend longer periods underground, but they do not hibernate.
Homestead: Their den/burrow is referred to as a sett (“cete” in some old hunting literature) and can be extensive, with a primary sett composed of several entrances and many metres of tunnels and chambers across differing levels, and subsidiary (outlier) setts throughout territory. Setts are excavated in well-drained and easily dug soils in a variety of areas, including woodland, scrub and hedgerows, even sometimes in open fields, sea cliffs, quarries, moorland and railway embankments. Occasionally, setts build under buildings or among archaeologically sensitive sites bring badgers into conflict with humans. A badger sett is easily separated from a fox earth by dried vegetation, used as bedding, outside the entrances. This bedding material of dried leaves and grass may be gathered from some considerable distance and is regularly changed and pulled out of the sett to air.
Territory: Badgers will range over only 20 to 50 ha (50-124 ac.) in rich habitats, while they may have to cover 150 ha (370 ac.) or more in poorer regions. Groups, called clans, will defend a territory aggressively against other badgers, particularly other males, and their range is marked with scent. Scent marking involves applying secretions from a large subcaudal gland just under the base of the tail to the ground and vegetation, as well as depositing faeces in a series of small pits called latrines throughout the territory, particularly near the sett, along ancestral paths, and at territory boundaries.
Diet: An opportunistic species with broad diet. In the UK, earthworms make up the bulk of the diet during the spring and autumn to the extent that warm dry weather during autumn can impact winter survival. Cereals, small mammals (particularly rabbits and hedgehogs), amphibians, fish, insects (e.g., beetles, wasp/bee nests, and fly larvae), fruit and plant bulbs/roots are also taken. The species has been implicated in predation of ground-nesting bird nests, and they will certainly take eggs if they encounter a nest.
Reproduction: Mating can occur during any month, but in Britain the bulk is between February and May. Embryonic diapause, where blastocyst development is either suspended or slowed significantly during the winter months) results in young born from mid-January to mid-March, with a peak in early February. Litter size averages two cubs, but there may be up to six, and the young will typically remain underground until they're about eight weeks old, appearing above ground in late April or early May. Cubs start being weaned at 5 or 6 months old are are considered mature at 12 to 15 months old. It appears that only a single litter will be born in the main sett, presumably only to the dominant sow, but subordinate sows in the group may desert to an outlier to give birth, returning to the main sett once her cubs are old enough.
Behaviour and Sociality: Groups (clans), may average 10 or more in parts of Britain where resources allow, but the species generally lives solitarily or pairs throughout most of its range. Despite group formation, there is little sign of cooperation within clan beyond the collection of bedding, although more recent trailcam observation suggest adults may play with and even babysit cubs other than their own. No obvious pecking order is observed, although several authors have considered one probable. Scent is highly important for sociality as well as territory demarcation (see above). Clan members mark each other with secretions from subcaudal glands and may even press these glands together, which presumably results in mixing and the generation of a “clan scent”. WildCRU documented 16 acoustically-distinct calls from badgers at Wytham Woods in Oxford, most of which happen underground and a close range. Peak period for dispersal is late June through to August/September.
Threats: Badgers have no natural predators in the UK and, contrary to popular opinion, probably never have had, even when wolves and bears were present in the landscape. Culled locally in England as part of bovine tuberculosis control plans and significant numbers die on the roads, especially cubs during the summer. Protected by law in the UK, although some illegal persecution by landowners and badger baiters continues.
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