All about Badgers is a series of articles based on Badger ecology as we follow the Badger through the seasons of the year This is the first in a series of blogs about the iconic mammal, Meles Meles – better known to most as the Badger. So, let’s look at what Badgers are doing in the British mid-winter.
It is so quiet and peaceful. It’s as if there was a kind of magic in the air. Take a look with us into Bagders in the winter.
A badger’s home is called a sett. These are often found in woodlands, field edges, and extensive gardens. Badger setts can be found in parks and green spaces in urban areas.
Badgers live in social groups of 5 to 6 adults. There is usually a higher number of females in the group; it’s believed this helps to counteract the higher mortality of males through roadkill and fights.
Only some females, known as sows, will breed each year. These are the older or more dominant sows, whilst the smaller sows, often with visible scars on their rumps from fighting for dominance within the group, will be subordinate to the breeding sows.
If a subordinate sow does breed, the dominant female will often kill the cubs and leave them outside the sett.
In winter, badgers spend more time underground in their setts. Badgers don’t hibernate. Instead, they sleep for extended periods, only going out to feed on warmer winter days.
Although breeding occurs in early spring and again in late summer, badgers use delayed implantation like some other mammals.
The mating occurs either inside or close to the entrance of the sett. Interestingly, a female badger may mate with more than one male and have a litter of mixed parentage. This helps with the group’s genetic diversity and can lead to colour variations.
Sows can ovulate a second time and mate again whilst already carrying blastocysts from an earlier mating and still start the pregnancy simultaneously to produce a single litter of cubs. This remarkable ability is called superfetation.
Blastocysts, the fertilised eggs, are implanted on or around the Winter Solstice on 21st December every year. Each blastocyst, a tiny ball of cells that becomes an embryo, takes around 7 to 8 weeks to develop into a badger cub.
Despite female badgers eating less and living off fat reserves, the winter months are when they give birth to their cubs, which are born helpless and blind.
Newborn cubs are about 12cm (5.5 inches long) with a light covering of silvery grey fur and weigh about 75-130g. This fur is a little darker on the legs, and sometimes there are faint stripes on the face.
Sows will generally have two or three cubs, collectively known as a litter. The newborn cubs will stay underground with their mothers and family groups for around 8 to 10 weeks. It is often possible to tell whether a sow has cubs, as her teats are prominent between February and the end of May.
The cubs have silky, grey fur with a fluffy look. Both adults and cubs will remain extremely cautious and not venture far from the set.
The aim is for the cubs to start venturing above ground in April or early May when invertebrate food is plentiful, and they have as much time as possible to put on fat to prepare them for their first winter.
Most cubs are born in a specially modified nursing chamber within the sett, usually close to the entrance.
This will have good airflow and a dense pile of bedding that the pregnant sow moves in before giving birth. Sometimes, a subordinate sow may make a nursing chamber in a smaller sett or even use just straw, hay or bracken, but always away from the attention of a more dominant pregnant sow.
The cubs are born with their eyes closed. They develop their first teeth at about four weeks, and their eyes open at around five weeks old. Even then, they can’t see well for a few more weeks.
The cubs may now show hints of their two dark eye stripes in their otherwise thin, silky fur, but by the time they leave the sett, they have developed full adult colouration.
They also behave precisely as adults when threatened, facing the enemy with lowered heads and fluffed-up coats. This displays remarkable confidence in their size, suggesting that the stripes may be a warning.
When the cubs are around 6 to 7 weeks old, they leave the nursery chamber and begin exploring within the sett. At about 8 weeks old, they may come up to the sett entrances.
Watching a sett in late April and early May is the best time to see the cubs’ first foray above ground.
Keep an eye on the entrance because they will probably remain in it or nearby, and the cubs will stay very close to their mother. She will herd them below ground at the first sign of danger and even drag a cub to safety by the scruff of its neck.
Sows will suckle their young for about 12 weeks, generally until around the end of May in the UK; after this, the weaning starts, and the sow will allow the cubs to suckle less, forcing them to start finding their food.
This is the first of a short series of blogs where we will look at badgers’ lives throughout the year.
Further Reading
Badger Biology & Ecology by Scottish Badgers
Badger Ecology by Badger Trust
Badger Ecology by Binfield Badger Group
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