Badgers

[durulz]

Are badgers active this time of year?
We're out for a weekend this...er...weekend, so yesterday we went to scout (can I use the word 'recce'? Yeah, I can, can't I), or rather 'recce', a camping spot. We found a nice one and whilst looking around the immediate area we found a badger sett, with fresh badger prints.
So we thought it'd be a good thing to do a Ray - find a nearby spot downwind and sit still and watch the badgers at dusk.
I suppose the presence of fresh badger prints means they are clearly active, but can anyone confirm this, and suggest the best time?
Cheers all.

[Bushwhacker]

Yes they are active.
I see them in broad daylight sometimes as I've found some above-ground beds at the bases of trees which they use, but dusk and onwards would be optimal.
Try feeding/baiting up your observation area with some regularity to keep them hanging around, otherwise you'll maybe just get a glimpse of them emerging from the sett before buggering off elsewhere to find some grub.
There will most definitely be trails to-ing and fro-ing so you can always wait along one of these. Creatures of habit they are.

[durulz]

What would be best to leave as feed?

[soloman]

I think peanuts are used as feed/bait.
Soloman.

[Bushwhacker]

Old dustbin guts will eat anything but peanuts are good. Smearing peanut butter onto a log or suchlike is even better.

[JonathanD]

Try to avoid peanut butter as it sticks in the teeth and causes tooth decay which is fatal in a badger. I used to use it until someone told me about the adverse affects it can have. Peanuts will do the job well. Dusk is the best time to see them.

[durulz]

Cheers all.
Peanuts at dusk it is! (sounds like the title of badger-based Western)

[Bluemerle]

They are also partial to tinned dog food! a bit later in the year you will often see the youngsters playing and exploring in broad daylight, they don't seem to realise they are supposed to be nocturnal!! lovely creatures, i hope you get to see them.

[Pablo]

At the moment Badgers are getting ready to give birth so they are very active digging out the birth chambers. You should see new spoil heaps and old bedding outside the entrance holes. At the moment they are in and out so often you will rarely get a good view. As for bait - I would restrict baiting until you really want to keep the badger outside the sett entrance for a while. In fact you should restrict baiting full stop. You don't want them to rely on it too much. If you do bait then peanuts (non salted) are fine. I must admit I've not heard of the peanut butter problem. Not too sure whether a small amount would make that much difference. I tend to use peanut butter as a scent attracter on trails away from the sett and a little higher up on a tree near a track trap to get good prints.

[Ian "max" Maxwell]

Interesting thread. There is a difference between baiting and using attractants. Essentially baiting is aimed at drawing in an animal to feed, and there are ethical problems with feeding, as highlighted in previouse thread.
If I want to draw an animal into an area, it is more effective to use attractants. This could include peanut butter, smeared on a tree, but out of the reach of the animal. Peanut butter is good as an attractant, as fat is a very rare item in the wild, and the peanuts are squashed and blended, so the fat smell disperses more effectivly than plain peanuts.The benefit to this is that the scent cone is greater and the animal doesnt become dependant on the food source.
As regards tooth decay, I dont know if thats the case , but I would stay and on the side of caution and not feed them peanut butter.

[Rob]

I have used peanut butter when setting track traps during courses, as it does bring things in. Having it up out of reach means that the first little critter that comes along doesn't run off with a big blob of it around it's face.

I tend to use peanuts from the stash of bird food if I am setting out the trail camera - not salted or had anything added to them that the food manufacturers tend to add. Only a few scattered about (in the right allignment as well to help the sensor pick things up - across the field of view instead of directly towards the camera). I don't do this often and when I do it is only on well trodden routes - where it is more of a small bonus for the badger, rather than a regular of substantial feast.

[JonathanD]

I don't think using it a couple of times would hurt. It's when it is used repetatively that damage can occur.

[Laughoutlouder]

Interesting.

I'm feeling a bit lazy this evening and don't fancy getting a book out or using google anymore, way too much google today!

Could any of you guys or girls tell me the best habitat/landscape types to find badgers? Broadleaf deciduous? Hilly? Loosish/sandy soil? I have never seen a badger and they are definitely on the hit list!

Cheers in advance!

[JonathanD]

Woodland, or thick hedges bordering fields. You can't miss them. Most of the paths through woodlands are made by badgers and adopted by us. Look for the tunnels or gaps they dig under fences and then follow the paths from those, you will eventually come to a sett.

[Laughoutlouder]

Excellent, thanks!

[gowersponger]

ive got a friend who actually lives in the woods in a hut he feeds the badgers he gives them apples and outher fruit plus fresh water he said they eat cereal to

[JonathanD]

Badgers will eat anything. They bite each others bottoms, and nothing in the world smells as bad as a badgers bottom.

[blacktimberwolf]

Badgers will eat anything. They bite each others bottoms, and nothing in the world smells as bad as a badgers bottom.

You haven't smelt my dog's !

[Bothwell_Craig]

Badgers main diet is worms!

They will eat anything, I know of a woman that feeds them macaroni cheese most nights and they line up to get it. When looking at territory marking experts mix peanuts with black treacle and add small coloured plastic pellets that let us identify latrines and dung pits being used by particular sett dwellers.

As for where they will live.....pretty much anywhere except wet ground although I know of a sett that is in a burn that does flood at times. I've also been to setts in peoples gardens, under sheds, under new build houses (the owners were terrified that the badgers were going to come up through the living room floor and eat the children). Setts in coal bings with badgers that look melanistic (but its only coal dust) and in ruined buildings that have been demolished and now are just a pile of rubble!

[JonathanD]

I used to think they were quite rare until I started tracking back in the late nineties. Now every path I go down I see badgers tracks and signs. They are everywhere, it's amazing we don't see them more often.

[JonathanD]

yes the UK has a large population, despite regular " culls", Your're lucky, you seem to be in a wildlife rich part of the country, badgers are nocturnal, & very cautious, if they smell the least trace of us they won't come out to play. & also they wander about while most of us are fast asleep, They can be easily "tamed" with food as some people have stated, but those living in remote areas usually keep well clear of humans...........despite their bulky apperance they can move & run very fast & making little noise

I take the missus and a five year old female-noise-monster to see the badgers at our local sett. Great to watch them in the wild, but you do have to plan everything perfectly so they don't smell or hear you. They are hilarious to watch. Proper comedy animals. For such a rufty-tufty animal, they make the daftest of noises. Yeah, they run fast, but look so silly when they do. They crack me up.

[Whittler Kev]

I've seen loads our way lately. Unfortunately not very active as they wandered in front of a moving vehicle :(. At one spot on the way to work I saw two. First one morning that someone had put on the side of the road. Next morning there were two there. :(

[JonathanD]

Badgers pay a heavy toll on the roads, they are blinded by the head lights & don't have time to react, many deaths could be avoided especially on country or secondary roads, but some bastards just carry on driving.

And when the clocks go forward or back, the rush hours change and no one tells the badgers.

[blacktimberwolf]

They are also partial to tinned dog food! a bit later in the year you will often see the youngsters playing and exploring in broad daylight, they don't seem to realise they are supposed to be nocturnal!! lovely creatures, i hope you get to see them.

yeah, fox cubs too can be seen playing during the day......child rebellion.

[blacktimberwolf]

While discussing badgers do you know why they are called boars & sows.............in the past, they used to be eaten, the back legs were cured, a sort of poor mans ham. Apparently they did taste like pork,.............sandwich anyone ?