The badger is our largest native land predator and belongs to the mustelid family. The Badger often plays a role in fairy tales, legends and fables
children's stories. The badger always plays a wise old man, a loyal friend or a lifesaver. But in reality, the animal is not very smart and has difficulty adapting to changes.
What does a Badger look like?
The badger is a strong animal, of stocky build with short, powerful legs. You can mainly recognize it by the black and white drawing on the head. From head to tail it is approximately 75 cm long. Males and females are difficult to tell apart
to separate.
A badger can live up to fifteen years, but in the Netherlands
the average age is around five years. This is mainly because the badger does not pay attention in traffic. With their small eyes, badgers can still swim during the day
reasonable vision, but relatively poor at night. Hearing is a lot better, although they cannot direct their ears like pine martens, cats or foxes. Fortunately, their great sense of smell makes up for a lot. Badgers mainly live in a world of smells. Those smells tell them everything about them
conspecifics, their food and danger.
Where does the Badger live?
Badgers live in extensive self-dug cave systems, also called castles. They prefer to dig a den in a steep slope and preferably near grassland. A castle usually has 3 to 10 entrances and consists of caves connected by corridors. The corridors become pipes
and the caves are called residential boilers. The badger does not need to contact Langen Grondverzet for the excavation work. They have very strongly developed and muscular forelimbs. With its sturdy hind legs and bottom
the tie pushes the loosened sand outwards. This is how the striking ones are created
dumps at the exits of the castle. You can also recognize the exit of a castle by its drainage channels, which lead from the exit of the castle to the end of the dumps.
Is the badger a family pet?
The badger lives in family groups of an average of three to six animals. A family group jointly inhabits a castle with territory, from which other badgers are chased away. The badger is a nocturnal animal and leaves its den at dusk. He then starts exploring the area extensively and grooming his coat. Badgers search for food together or separately up to a distance of 1, 2 or sometimes up to 4 kilometers from the castle. The badger's territory includes the castle and feeding grounds of a family group and in the Netherlands is usually between 30 and 50 hectares, depending on the food supply. The territory
marks the badger with dung. For example, other badgers that do not belong to his family smell that they are entering someone else's property.
The badger does not hibernate, but is much less active during colder periods and sometimes stays in the castle for days. The young are born in February-March. A litter consists of two to four, but usually three young.
In the first 6 to 8 weeks of their lives, the young remain underground, then they carefully explore the world above. After three months they are already skillfully climbing tree stumps and running around a play tree near the castle. At the beginning of July, the young badgers go out for the first time without parental supervision. By autumn, the young badgers are independent and some leave their birthplace.
Does a badger take a bath?
Badgers are very clean animals. They don't take baths, but spend a lot of time doing so
brushing their fur and that of their family members. They also keep several
several times a year a major cleaning of their cave system. The burrows are then dug out and the nesting material replaced. There are never any food scraps in a badger's den.
What does a badger eat?
Badgers are omnivores. They are poor hunters and eat whatever comes directly in front of them. Due to their noisy way of foraging (searching for food), almost any alert animal escapes. They therefore mainly eat earthworms, which they find at night in meadows and open areas. They also eat forest fruits, fallen fruit, nuts, acorns, tubers, corn, corn, mushrooms, rodents, snails, beetles and bumblebee and wasp brood. A badger eats 400-600 grams per day and it often takes hours before it finds enough food. Of course, earthworms are not that heavy, so you have to collect a lot of them before you have collected half a kilo.
What traces does a badger leave behind?
The chance that you will see a badger is small. If a badger is present you will often find traces, such as paw prints, root marks and switches.
- A switch is a much-trodden path.
- Snout pits that can be found in places where a badger searches for food. These pits are approximately 10 cm in diameter and a few centimeters deep. It looks like a pig has been feeding.
- Manure pits are 10-25 cm deep holes with badger droppings in them.
Is the tie protected?
Yes, that's right, the tie is legally protected. "Badgers may no longer be killed, captured or disturbed and it is not permitted to damage, destroy or disturb their immediate habitat" . Exemption from this legal provision can only be granted if " the favorable conservation status of the species is not compromised" and there is "no other satisfactory solution" . Thanks to this legal protection, the construction of wildlife passages and the efforts of volunteers, the badger is now doing better than a few years ago.
Although the badger is quite a bit of demolition, the badger is very welcome in our Equihabitat. We try not to disturb the family badger and hope that he enjoys all the goodies that grow and live in our Adventure Garden.
Will you also look for traces of the badger?