I was curious as to whether badgers were still residing in a local sett. I had not seen much of them this year, for one reason or another, but I wanted to know if they were still there, so I decided to put a couple of trail cameras out to see.
I first came across the sett in 2021 and it was a complete stroke of luck. I was following the trail of a fox I had seen and stumbled across a family of badgers, out feeding and playing in the late afternoon sun. I could hardly contain my excitement at finding a group of such fantastic animals.
I visited them a few times and consider myself very fortunate to see them in daylight. In summer there is a chance they will come out at dusk to feed, but it is very common for them to only appear once it goes dark. Once the days get shorter, the chances are quite remote.
I looked for them this year (2022) but only caught them on the trail camera. I knew there were cubs again though, so it was good to know the sett was still very active.
It’s now the end of September 2022, the cubs will have left and I wondered whether the parents are still at the sett, whether this is still their home. So, I collected the trail cameras that had been left out for a couple of nights and there they were. The parents are together and looking healthy and obviously looking after each other. This was so good to see and hopefully means that next year there will be more cubs.
Have a look at the video. The start is so good!
How lucky are you to have this happening near you. Sadly the badgers that live near me had their cubs killed this year. They are such beautiful animals.
That’s horrible to hear (cubs killed!). I hope the location of the badgers I see remains a secret.