I live in an area rich in wild Badgers but have only ever had a brief sighting of one, before a jogger came along the path and scared it off. Badgers are very flighty and will scarper at the first whiff of humans. They have poor eyesight but a very keen sense of smell. They are, of course, also nocturnal so even if you do sit quietly in the pitch black on one of their territorial paths and manage to spot one, taking a photograph is nigh on impossible.

Luckily for me, however, there is an excellent Badger hide near to where I live so a couple of weeks ago 4 friends and I went on a Badger watch. The hide contains flood lights which come on after dusk and as the Badgers are habituated to the light it doesn’t seem to bother them at all.

We spotted our first Badger at about 8pm, but a family came along the nearby public footpath hollering and shouting and scared him off 🫤 So we then had about an hour’s wait for our next sighting, a gorgeous female.

Although they look cute, their large razor sharp claws could cut you to ribbons in an instant. They’re luckily too scared of humans, though, to attack us. They are the UKs largest land predators and live in large family groups called clans in underground setts, which are a series of tunnels. They are omnivores, with 80% of their diet consisting of earth worms – they can eat several hundred in a single night. However, they will also eat fruit, cereals, insects, small rodents, and amphibians.

Britain holds about a quarter of the global population of European Badgers and they have lived here for at least 250,000 years! Their setts are legally protected in the UK under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, although they can be killed by special licence. They have been known to tunnel in Church yards which can cause havoc with graves, so sadly there are times their numbers must be reduced.

We saw 2 females and 2 younger males during the evening, which was awesome. It is incredible to be only feet away from these iconic animals and we are hoping to go back in July when, fingers crossed, there might be some babies around 🙂