Badger Meles meles

Scientific Name: Meles meles (Mustelidae).

English Name: Badger (Marten family).

French Name: Blaireau.

5 Key Characters:

• grey above, black below.
• head striped black and white.
• heavyset, with short legs.
• short tail.
• long snout.
  

Lookalikes: None.

Habitat: Woodland.

Behaviour: Nocturnal. Ambles or trots, bounds heavily if needs a burst of speed. Likes water, does not climb well. Generally lives socially. Very wary. Can be quite noisy and vocal.

Status: Abundant but not seen often except as roadkill. Hunting is allowed.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Active badger sett in a roadside bank near Chaumussay.

Active badger sett under mature trees and a causeway into a privately owned chateau near Bossay-sur-Claise. This is their path up and over the causeway.

Hole dug by badgers under the wall of a privately owned chateau near Bossay-sur-Claise. This point is roughly where the residential part of the chateau ends and the stables begin.

Badger activity under the wall of a privately owned chateau near Bossay-sur-Claise.

Badger hole inside the stables of a privately owned chateau near Bossay-sur-Claise. This hole is on an external wall.

Badger holes under an internal wall of the stables of a privately owned chateau near Bossay-sur-Claise.

Badger hole on the edge of a field near Braslou. The tunnel goes down about a metre then takes a sharp right turn. Some sizeable chunks of stone have been excavated.

A badger track in a muddy clay track through fields near Braslou. You can see the size and length of the claws, powerful digging tools.

A badger paw print on a sandy track near Braslou.

Badger sett near Chaumussay. There are at least three active badger setts within about a kilometre radius of this one.

Clear signs of recent digging, indicating an occupied sett.

A very active sett, with lots of digging going on.

The badgers' excavations are encroaching on the road here.

Badger prints on a sandy track.

Large entrances to a sett behind a veil of vegetation.

This badger sett is something of a multistorey residence.

An extensive sett with many entry / exit holes.

References and Further Reading:

Badger Highrise, a post on our daily blog Days on the Claise.