Predators: adults have no predators; cubs sometimes taken by foxes and large birds of prey. With its characteristic black and white-striped face, grey fur and short furry tail, the badger looks like no other UK mammal. Stocky, powerfully-built creatures, they typically weigh 10—12kg, with a body length of about 90cm. This makes them the biggest land predator in the UK. Badgers are omnivores, which means they will eat a wide range of food.
Fruit features in the badger's diet too, including pears, apples, plums and elderberries. Elder bushes can often be found growing near badger setts. When earthworms are scarce, badgers will eat small mammals like voles and rabbits. They are also the main predator of hedgehogs in the UK.
Badgers locate food using their keen sense of smell and sharp claws that are ideal for digging. Get advice on their feeding habits, from nuts to mealworms, and other top facts. Badgers live in social groups, typically made up of around four to seven individuals.
Mating occurs year-round, predominantly between February and May. During courtship, the male badger will pursue the female, biting the nape of her neck. After mating, a process known as delayed implantation occurs. This means cubs will not be born until January or February, regardless of when mating took place.
Youngsters will stay underground for around two months before first emerging. Cubs typically reach maturity at just over one year old. Some will stay with the family, while others will disperse to find new territory. This prevents a build-up of fleas and lice. Badgers are found across the UK, with the highest numbers in southern England. Ideal badger habitat is a mixture of woodland and open country. The species lives in a network of underground burrows and tunnels know as a sett.
Each badger territory will include a main sett and several smaller outlying setts. Outlying setts are smaller and provide a safe place to retreat to if needed when badgers are out foraging. Setts tend to be located in the shelter of woodland, with the badgers emerging at night to forage in fields and meadows.
Adult badgers are around 90cm long and can weigh anything between kg with an average of kg. The badger often lives in a group called a cete or clan. Each clan shares a territory containing feeding grounds and one or more setts. The size of the clan and the size of the territory are both related to the availability of food supplies. Badgers are largely nocturnal. In winter, badgers do not hibernate but reduce their activity during periods of cold weather. During the summer months, activity is mainly concentrated around the setts and the feeding areas and travelling between locations.
During the autumn, badger feeding activity increases to accumulate body fat reserves for the winter. A secondary peak in the number of road casualties occurs at this time. Badgers live in a system of interconnected tunnels and chambers called a sett. Every badger clan has one main sett, which is used for breeding and is usually relatively large. Well-established setts have been excavated by several generations of badgers, with some setts known to be occupied for centuries.
The size of the sett is influenced more by the soil type than by the number of animals living within it. In addition to the main sett, most clans have one or more secondary setts. Secondary setts are less important to the badgers than main setts, but they are useful nonetheless especially if the main sett is disturbed or there is a breakdown in the social structure within the clan. Disused setts may be taken over by rabbits or by foxes, and both these species have been known to co-habit with badgers in occupied setts.
In the chambers inside the sett, the badgers make nests in which they sleep. Periodically, fresh bedding material typically dry grass, straw, bracken or dead leaves is collected and dragged into the sett. Setts can be located in wooded areas or scrub, although more recently there is a tendency for setts being excavated in hedgerows in areas of improved pasture.
The badger is an omnivore, primarily a forager, eating an extremely wide range of animal and plant foods. They are opportunistic. Badgers have been known to regularly visit farm buildings and gardens if there is a readily available food source. February is the peak month of the badger main mating season, but they can mate at any time of the year. Eggs fertilized after mating develop into tiny balls of cells called blastocysts.
These remain in the uterus until a trigger factor causes implantation allowing development to resume. Regardless of fertilisation date, implantation nearly always occurs in late December or early January. Following weeks of normal gestation, birth occurs from late January to early March, with the majority taking place in the first half of February. Litter size can vary between 1 and 5 normally 2 or 3. Cubs spend approximately the first eight weeks of life underground, emerging in late April or early May.
Although badger cubs are born at a time of year which maximises their chances of survival, on average only one out of every three cubs survives to be one year old. Male and female cubs become sexually mature at around months of age and may mate before the end of their first year, in areas where food supplies are plentiful.
Badgers in the wild can live for as long as 15 years. However, most badgers die young and the average life span is just three years. Badgers are usually wary of humans. If cornered, individual animals may be more aggressive. There are features common to nearly all badger setts which help to distinguish them from the burrows dug by foxes and rabbits.
Most badger tunnels have a distinctive shape, being wider than they are tall, with a flattened base. Tunnels excavated by foxes and rabbits tend to be rounder or oval in shape, and taller than they are broad. The tunnels excavated by badgers are around 30cm in diameter, certainly no smaller than 25cm in diameter. Tunnels excavated by rabbits may be quite large at their entrance, but soon narrow down to a diameter of about 15cm.
Their molars are flattened and adapted for grinding. Their jaws are powerful enough to crush most bones; a provoked badger was once reported as biting down on a man's wrist so severely that his hand had to be amputated. The dental formula is:. Scent glands are present below the base of the tail and on the anus. The subcaudal gland secretes a musky-smelling, cream-colored fatty substance, while the anal glands secrete a stronger-smelling, yellowish-brown fluid.
In winter, the fur on the back and flanks is long and coarse, consisting of bristly guard hairs with a sparse, soft undercoat. The belly fur consists of short, sparse hairs, with skin being visible in the inguinal region.
Guard hair length on the middle of the back is 75—80 mm 3. Prior to the winter, the throat, lower neck, chest and legs are black. The belly is of a lighter, brownish tint, while the inguinal region is brownish-grey. The general color of the back and sides is light silvery-grey, with straw-colored highlights on the sides. The tail has long and coarse hairs, and is generally the same color as the back. Two black bands pass along the head, starting from the upper lip and passing upwards to the whole base of the ears.
The bands sometimes extend along the neck and merge with the color of the upper body. The front parts of the bands are 15 mm 0. A wide, white band extends from the nose tip through the forehead and crown. White markings occur on the lower part of the head, and extend backwards to a great part of the neck's length. The summer fur is much coarser, shorter and sparser, and is deeper in color, with the black tones becoming brownish, sometimes with yellowish tinges.
Partial melanism in badgers is known, and albinos are not uncommon.
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