Fact 1:
BADGERS ARE NOCTURNAL
This means that they are most active at night. During the day they stay underground in their setts, where they might sleep and groom each other. At night they go out to look for food and spend a lot of time clearing out and gathering fresh bedding, playing and digging.
Fact 2:
Badgers are part of the weasel (mustelid) family
They are related to otters, stoats, weasels, pine martens,pole cats and
ferrets and are the largest mustelid in the UK. Mustelids have scent
glands and give off a strong, musty smell. Most of them have a long
body, round ears and short legs.
Fact 3:
BADGERS LIVE IN SETTS
A sett is an underground burrow with lots of tunnels and chambers
which they dig using their sharp claws. There are lots of different
types of setts in a territory but the main sett is the biggest. Some
main setts are hundreds of years old and have hundreds of entrances
too!
Fact 4:
Badgers are a very social animal
Badgers in the UK live together with other family members called a
clan and they all share the digging and cleaning. All the badgers in a
clan know each other’s smell and mark each other so that the whole
clan has a shared smell.
Fact 5:
BADGERS ARE MAMMALS
This means that they give birth to live young called cubs. The female
badger (sow) provides milk for her cubs for the first 8-10 weeks of
their life before weaning them. They also have thick black and white
fur which looks grey.
Fact 6:
BADGERS EAT A VERY VARIED DIET
In the UK the Eurasian badger eats mostly earthworms. They also eat
a lot of fruit, seeds and berries and cereals in the late summer. A
smaller part of their diet is small mammals, frogs and birds and also
beetles. In other countries they have different diets!
Fact 7:
BADGERS HAVE POOR EYESIGHT
Badgers can’t see very well, even though they are most active in the
dark. They do have excellent hearing and sense of smell and are much
more likely to hear or smell you than see you.
Fact 8:
Badgers aren’t just good at digging!
Even though they don’t look like it, they are very good at climbing.
They can also swim quite well.
Fact 9:
BADGERS ARE VERY STRONG
Badgers can move very large stones when they are digging. They have
muscles all around their jaw and have a very strong bite, that’s why
some people like to fight their dogs against them.
Fact 10:
Badgers habitats
Most badger setts are in broadleaved woodland, but they can also be
found just about anywhere. It is important that they have access to
food, so the ideal habitat has plenty of good worming pasture! The
soil needs to be well draining and easy to dig, so lots of sand is best.