Eurasian badger in Kent woodland. Photo by Ian Blacker 2008, used under a Creative Commons licence. (Click image to enlarge.)

Eurasian Badger Meles meles

Badgers live in family “clans” of up to 12 individuals and often play which helps to strengthen their social bonds. They are nocturnal and emerge from their setts at dusk. They are widespread throughout Europe and Britain, but not as common in northern Scotland and many of the islands around the UK.

Badgers are excellent diggers and their diet consists mainly of earthworms. They also eat bulbs, acorns, fruit, nuts, cereal crops, insects, birds' eggs, carrion, and live vertebrate prey such as hedgehogs, moles, and rabbits. They prefer deciduous woods with clearings or open pasture but are also found in urban and suburban areas.

Though badgers are not considered endangered numbers have been depleted. They are protected under various wildlife acts and UK law states that it is an offence to kill, injure or capture a badger, or to interfere with its sett. Its decline in some agricultural areas has been attributed to land-use changes causing a loss of and fragmentation of suitable habitat. Road traffic accidents are a major cause of death. In the United Kingdom the species is associated with bovine TB but this is still under investigation and debate.

A Badger exploring a garden. Photo by Bob Henry, used under Creative Commons licence. (Click image to enlarge.)

The badger is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN in view of its wide distribution, relatively large population, and the fact that it occurs in a number of protected areas. (See IUCN Red List for more information on the classification of the Eurasian Badger).

Learn more about our UK reserve at Kites Hill

Badgers can be found living near the World Land Trust project site at Kites Hill.

More Information on Badgers

• Read more about badgers at BBC Wildfacts
• Find more information on the Badger at ARKive -a unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species.