A pair of badgers in the garden

[syklist]

Our wire mesh compost holder kept on getting knocked over after I moved it to another place in our garden. At first I thought it was our local flock of magpies that was the cause so pegged the the thing down with tent pegs. It still kept being knocked over and then I noticed it happened at night. Not long after I spotted a badger in our garden. Now it seems that we have two who visit us every night. They feed on some scraps of food I throw out and also dig for larvae in our lawn. I am assuming that it is the same two every night, as I never see more than two at a time. I have also discovered a badger toilet about 3 m below the end of our garden.

A quick search on the internet suggest that badgers live in groups of 2 to 20 but I haven't found out of the group of two would be a mating pair or say a pair of juveniles. Is a pair of badgers always a mating pair?

[hujev]

Not sure about the marriage, but We Want Pictures!!, please!

[martin biggs]

Yes pictures are required , and badgers are something i would love to see for myself in there natural surroundings

[hercule]

We were woken at 1am in late September by what sounded like the world's worst cat fight. After it went on for an interminable period of time I leaned out the window and told them to shut up (that often works). No effect. Rather concerned that one of the combatants was going to be seriously injured, I grabbed my head torch (a Hope R4, so very bright) and went out to investigate. There in middle of the garden were two large badgers having a go at each other, biting each other's rumps. Not sure if this was a territorial or mating issue (they mate around now). They were completely oblivious despite the very bright light but I didn't fancy getting too close!

After a minute or two they realised they had an audience and loped off in opposite directions.

I read up about them and discovered that I'd been missing lots of signs of their visits and it looks like they are visiting regularly. I've invested in a wildlife/trail camera from Amazon and have managed to catch a few shots of them in the middle of the night... we seem to be on a regular route, they come and rotovate my vegetable garden at 1am and then again at 4am. Fortunately I'm only cultivating weeds at the moment

Unfortunately the pictures are on the other computer, I'll upload them later.

Since I've learned what to look for I'm seeing their signs all over the place. I think there's probably quite a lot of badgers out there ...

[mercalia]

if you have a cat then be careful there was a case recently of a badger killing one

[hercule]

Just getting the hang of the camera, it has movement sensors and IR photography capability. This badger seems a bit smaller than the couple I saw before.

[Phil_Chadwick]

At this time of the year, the young males are dispersing and you often find they take up temporary residence. We had one entirely rotavate the grass (I hesitate to say "lawn") at our previous house. he moved on after a couple of weeks.

[Phil_Chadwick]

if you have a cat then be careful there was a case recently of a badger killing one

that must be very rare, though. Our cats have always avoided badgers, and badgers avoid the cats. Neither really wants a fight.Usually.

[syklist]

Not sure about the marriage, but We Want Pictures!!, please!

I mounted a new 10W LED "floodlight" in the garden so that the Snow-o-Meter is visible at night, and it provides just enough light to get some reasonable pictures using my Olympus camera. I thought it might deter the badgers but they seem unconcerned by the "bright" light.

These pictures were taken last night.

[PDQ Mobile]

Not sure about the marriage, but We Want Pictures!!, please!

I mounted a new 10W LED "floodlight" in the garden so that the Snow-o-Meter is visible at night, and it provides just enough light to get some reasonable pictures using my Olympus camera. I thought it might deter the badgers but they seem unconcerned by the "bright" light.

These pictures were taken last night.

Nice pictures.
The light point is interesting.
Last winter in Wales I was able several times to approach on foot (upwind) to within 4 or 5 meters of foraging badgers. Video to prove!
I was astonished that they seemed absolutely unconcerned about my Hope 4 LED bicycle lamp on full power!
The smallest noise of footfall or of a cracking twig would send then instantly into head up alert mode though.
I have come to the conclusion they must be blind or at least significantly partially blind to LED sourced light.

[Mistik-ka]

These pictures were taken last night.

I am consumed with envy! What beautiful creatures.

[axel_knutt]

There used to be badgers living in the wood next to Barrow House hostel, staff put kitchen scraps on a tree stump at the front of the hostel and they would come out for a feast at dusk. They didn't seem particularly fazed by an audience, you could get within about 6' of them before they shyly crept round to the far side of the stump.

I am consumed with envy! What beautiful creatures.

Not everybody here thinks so, they get culled because they are blamed for spreading tuberculosis to farm cattle, and then there are illegal badger baiters who like to dig them out of their setts and throw them to dogs for them to tear to bits.

[syklist]

At this time of the year, the young males are dispersing and you often find they take up temporary residence. We had one entirely rotavate the grass (I hesitate to say "lawn") at our previous house. he moved on after a couple of weeks.

That's interesting as the evidence of badges goes back a few months which suggest that they might not be young males dispersing. As for damage, our grass is just the stuff that covers the soil. We cycle and walk all over it and Junior plays on it so a few small badger excavations are not a big problem.

if you have a cat then be careful there was a case recently of a badger killing one

Anything that keeps cats out of our garden and stops them crapping in and around our garden and house and keeps them from leaving dead wildlife for us to find at unexpected moments is to be welcome. Having said that, when I went out last night whilst a badger was feeding I disturbed one of the local cats which had been sitting on our door step watching the badger. No other interaction between the animals besides them being in the garden at the same time.

[CliveyT]

if you have a cat then be careful there was a case recently of a badger killing one

that must be very rare, though. Our cats have always avoided badgers, and badgers avoid the cats. Neither really wants a fight.Usually.

I would suspect there was something wrong with teh cat in the first place (or even the badger picking up cat roadkill?) A fast moving cat armed with teeth and claws that can see in the dark shouldn't have much to fear from a (albeit strong) slow moving, virtually blind badger. I've seen cats see off foxes before and I would have thought they would be more of a threat

[Tom Richardson]

I met a badger on the street in West Wickham after it climbed out of someones bin. It gave me a very dirty look, stood its ground and seemed well up for a fight. I backed away slowly.

Just before that someone local here had their dog attacked by a badger so I was a bit wary. Its a lurcher type dog and I guess it had chased after the badger. It hadn't chased it far by the look of it tho, the dog had stitches in patches all over it where it had been bitten (probably needed antibiotics for TB as well!).

Badgers might be timid but from what I've seen of them they're vicious things. They can run surprisingly fast too.