All you need to know about Badger setts
Where can you find badger setts?
Badger setts can be found in lots of different places but woodland areas are the best place to start, badgers like to eat earthworms and the best place for them to find these worms is short grass that has been grazed on by livestock. This therefore means that the best places to look are the areas of woodland which are nearest to fields. The badgers obviously use the woodland as shelter and protection and then go into the fields to get food.
Can they be found in all types of woodland?
The answer to this is no, due to the fact that they like to dig tunnels or burrows and live inside them therefore they need woodland which has suitable ground for digging. This will mean that areas that are liable to flooding or which have marshy ground are definitely not the correct environment for the badgers, they much prefer dry and sandy soil, although having said this they do also live clay areas as well if they have to. Due to the fact that the badgers much prefer to dig sideways than they do downwards, they will be more likely to be found in sloping areas than they are likely to be found on flat land. This is because the water flows down the slopes and therefore helps to keep the sett dry.
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What does a sett look like?
Most simple setts will look like a tunnel with a sleeping chamber at the end, however many of them are much more complicated than this; being made up of a series of tunnels and having nursery chambers as well as the normal sleeping chambers. They may have many entrances and may even be advanced enough to be taking into account air circulation making sure they constantly have a supply of fresh air. The entrances themselves often have piles of mud outside them and are generally bigger than rabbit holes.
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How do they build the setts?
The badgers front set of claws are up to 25mm long and are very tough and powerful, these are the ones they use for digging the tunnels. Their other claws are usually only about 10 to 15mm.
What is a nesting chamber and what is their purpose?
Nesting chambers are usually the place where the badger goes for comfort and they are filled with bedding like materials which form a layer between the badger and the damp soil in order to keep them warm, which is especially essential for the cubs who would find it very difficult to survive the colder temperatures otherwise. The other function of the nesting chambers is to form an area with a constant, comfortable temperature controlled area which is cooler than being outside in the summer and warmer than being outside in the winter. Many people think that the nesting chambers are always found at the very end of the sett, however this is not always the case as sometimes they can be found along at the side of the tunnels. Many of the nesting chambers can be very small, even to the point where the badgers cannot actually spread out inside them and therefore have to stay curled up instead. This allows the badger to conserve as much of its body heat as possible, this being essential during the winter when they cannot find food and therefore are living off their own body fat and will need to keep up their core body temperatures as much as possible.
They tend to have more nesting chambers than they need in order to allow them to rotate between the chambers otherwise they do not have a chance to freshen up at all, this would be detrimental to the badgers as like many wild animals they carry parasites on their bodies which when the badgers rotate between the chambers will just die off in the bedding. This wouldn't be the case if the chamber was always occupied.
Different types of badger setts
Here in the UK there are four major types of badger setts that can be found;
- Main setts -usually have very obvious pathways to and from the sett and they have a large number of tunnels and entrances. They are usually in constant use.
- Annex setts - often found about 150m away from the main set and these have intermittent use and it is usually very clear that they are linked with obvious pathways to the main sett.
- Subsidiary setts - these are not as active and are generally associated with the main sett, being at least 50m but it is not clear that they are associated with the main sett.
- Outlaying setts - much smaller setts with only one or two holes and are not used very often. There usually are no obvious links at all with main sets and as they are not used very often they are likely to get taken over by other animals such as foxes or rabbits.
The sets we found in Seeley Copse
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| Seeley Copse |
At Seeley Copse we found a couple of different badger setts, my guess is that there was a main badger set and an annex or subsidiary sett.
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| Seeley Copse |
Bibliography
Badger Setts available at: http://badgerland.co.uk/animals/sett.html (accessed 20/04/13)
How to recognize a badger sett available at: http://badgerwatcher.com/2010/02/21/how-to-recognise-a-badger-sett/ (accessed 20/04/13)
Image 1 available at: http://enthusiasticeducation.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/1badger21.jpg (accessed 20/04/13)
Image 2 available at: http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset? asset=image&assetId=1232712320822&imageSize=xLarge&mode=prd (accessed 20/04/13)
Seeley Copse Images taken by myself.
