Badgers and Bivvis

[tommy the cat]

The only thing that I would be worried about sleeping near to badgers is getting any sleep!!!
Seriously I wouldnt sleep to close to the sett they can be noisy buggers especially when mating.
D

 

[DavidJT]

Slept out last night (hammock), and was kept awake till all hours by a family of them squabbling at a set maybe 40yrds away. I'll remember the ear plugs next time.
Never occured to me to be worried about them, more
concerned about ticks usually.

The only thing that I would be worried about sleeping near to badgers is getting any sleep!!!
Seriously I wouldnt sleep to close to the sett they can be noisy buggers especially when mating.
D

Couldn't agree more Tommy, see above!

 

[JonathanD]

They are in full blown cussing and scrapping mode by me. No chance of sleep during that.

 

[paulhereford]

I am pretty much the same as Shewie and JonathanD....one of the woods I use has a set and my bivvy / hammock area is about 40 metres from a lovely badger sett. I have spent many a lovely evening / night watching the comings and goings of these lovely animals. They associate my scent with food as I often put peanuts down in strategic positions to assist with my viewing of them. I feel priveliged to share the wood and feel like I have been accepted and they 'put' up with me. I have never experienced any aggression, quite the opposite.

 

[paulhereford]

Great video Paul

 

[HeltorChasca]

About 10 years ago I had a couple of run ins with hyenas at night in the Mana Pools National Park which is on the Zimbabwean side of the Lower Zambezi.

The most memorable: One night, after I had put my head down, one individual was snuffling about for "food opportunities" right next to my tent. He was very close and my heart rate was up to say the least. I wonder how big my eyes were.

Anyway, as he went about his foraging, he bumped into a crate of empty beer bottles and the noise very obviously gave him the fright of his life. He leapt out the way, a couple of feet into the air, onto the side of my tent and landed right on top of me!

Just like our badgers, he got the biggest fright out of the two of us and ran off into the night. I lay there wondering if he would be back the next night with a more skilful, zip-opening mate!

 

[norm]

I remember as a scout, bivi'ing at the local campsite in a shelter - about 3 or 4 of us in a semi-circle - when in the middle of the night a badger wandered in to the middle, did a circuit and wandered back off again... Lots of snuffling and grunting, no aggression!

Jamie

 

[rommy]

About 15 years ago I was doing the Coast to Coast walk with one of my sons and camped late one night alongside the river Swale. Was awoken in the early hours by a fearsome noise and on opening the tent flaps a badger was stood facing us not six feet away, grunting most indignently! It was as if he wanted to know what right we had to be there!

In the morning we saw the entrance hole and guess we must have been camped directly above his sett.

 

[JonathanD]

Watch out if you leave your boots outside though, they nick 'em.