30 Nights Wild 2017

This year I plan to bring you 30 Nights Wild, reporting all the action from my local badger sett in Yorkshire, throughout the month of June.

I'll be following this small clan as they go about their evening activities of foraging, grooming, collecting bedding and cleaning out the sett. Will the badgers turn up every night? They never do on Springwatch!


 Dominant sow Theresa. Note the torn left ear
I've been watching this sett for the last eight years and every year is different, largely depending on the number of cubs they produce. Last year they had two cubs and there were six badgers in residence by autumn. Now there are just three adults and one new cub.
Badger identification can be tricky. Mature males are more heavily built than females, but in younger males the differences are not that obvious. At this sett, the dominant sow Theresa has a distinctive torn left ear. The tail on a male badger is generally thinner and whiter than a female's.

Males' tails are narrower and whiter than females'

Here there are two young males which are difficult to tell apart. Getting to know them as individuals, I can see differences in their mannerisms and behaviour. Boris is usually first to the peanuts I put out for them, while Jeremy will often wait nervously by the sett entrance until Boris has finished. But if he does venture out to feed with Boris, there is no hostility between them.

Boris, a yearling male

Jeremy

Theresa, with cub Nicola


Comments

  1. Looking forward to seeing more of your Badgers during 30 Nights Wild. Alex

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Alex. I'm hoping the badgers' behaviour improves!

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