If you are looking for evidence of badger activity, these are the most common
things you should you look for:
- Badger Setts - check the shape of the hole. Badger holes tend to
be the shape of a capital 'D', with the flat side downwards, and are
at least 20cms wide.
- A fox-hole is usually much smaller, and may contain several bones
at or near the entrance (badgers do not usually bring much food back
to the sett).
- You may even notice a pungent smell from a fox-hole if the fox is
near the entrance. However, a fox can often use a badger sett
occasionally (even if badgers are in there too), so this is not a
muddy tracks from the sett entrances.
- Badgers often place their back foot where their front foot was,
leading to smudgy foot-prints.
- Good foot-prints will show a prominent central pad, and either
four or five toes, with good claw marks.
bedding being dragged in.
- Old bedding being ejected.
- Large spoil heap outside main sett. This may contain old bedding,
bits of fur, and even small bones.
pits near badger sett and elsewhere.
- Badgers tend to use one or more latrines until the hole is full,
them start another.
- The faeces may also contain evidence as to the badgers diet. Black
and slimy, implies a worm-rich diet. However, there may also be
evidence of cereal, grains, seeds or even insect casings.
marks on trees and rocks nearby.
- Badgers may also use other uprights as scratching posts.
- These sometimes including fence-posts, wooden greenhouses, barns
or even garden furniture.
- Badgers may also rip bark from rotting logs or tree trunks to get
at any juicy grubs inside the bark.
- These scratch marks will usually show a series of four or five
parallel lines of deep gouges in the wood or soft stone. However,
you can sometimes also see lighter parallel lines of scratches,
where the badgers claws have clipped something they have hopped over
(such as an old log which obstructs a pathway).
used badger tracks through woodland and fields.
- These may have been used by many generations of badgers.
- Check for evidence when the path crosses a boundary; as there may
be badger hair on barbed-wire fences or rough wooden slats or
uprights. There may also be evidence of footprints near the
- These pathways may be so well used, that they form a depression in
the soil; and form depressions through hedgerows that can be seen
easily from the road.
- It is also commonly believed that the exact route of these paths
is exceptionally well known by badgers. There has been much
circumstantial evidence that badgers appear to follow precisely the
same path across a field, even when that field has been ploughed
deeply several times, leaving no visible trace of an actual path.
footprints on muddy tracks (when walking a badger will often place
its back foot where its front foot has been, meaning that prints can
be unclear or smudged).
- A badgers front foot usually has longer claws than its back foot.
- A well used badger path will tend to become muddy due to constant
use by badgers; although any prints on the path may become smudged
by other animals who use the path later (such as dogs, foxes, etc).
- Snuffle holes where badgers go after worms - specially noticeable
on lawns and golf-courses, these may be round or oval shaped, and a
few centimetres deep.
- Other ground disturbance where badgers have dug for roots, bulbs
- Wasps nests torn up out of the ground (badgers usually dig down
through the top, rather than going in through the front; as this
tends to avoid the risk of their nose getting stung!).
- Badger hair on barbed wire and other wire fences, or under fences.
- In cold still winter days, steam rising from active badger setts.
- If you have come across a skull and are wondering if it is that of
a badger, check it against the ones shown on the following web page Badger
- If you have seen some poo and wonder what animal left it, then
have a look at poo descriptions on the following web site: Description
of Animal Droppings
- If you have an animal coming through a gap, narrow the gap a
little with firm sticks and double-sided sticky tape. With luck this
should catch some hair - helping you to identify the animal.
- Black and white (with some grey) hairs up to 12cm long are
probably badgers. These may be stained with the colour of the local
earth (especially at the ends). Badger hairs feel rough, and
"square" when rolled between the finger-tips.
- Hairs which are wholly red or brown are probably foxes or another
- If you suspect a badger is visiting, email the details to us (use
our Ask An Expert
we will give our opinion as to whether we think it is a badger, and
what other signs you might look for.
- If you let us know the nearest large town, we will let you know
where your nearest Badger
Group is too. They would always be glad to know of any new
badger sett, and they might be able to help you and the badgers out.
They should also be able to help protect the badgers, and the green
spaces they need to live