Messengers from the other world
The role of our elusive, nocturnal badger is often overlooked when celebrating British wildlife, in part due to their association with bovine tuberculosis and in part due to their reputation as grubby, grumpy, territorial creatures: from Kenneth Grahame’s wise yet firm, Mr. Badger in The Wind in the Willows to Beatrix Potter’s “disagreeable” Tommy Brock. We would like to offer our own perspective on Elmore’s much celebrated Badger residents.
Badgers live in clans of between four and eight adults in tunnels they dig called setts, which can extend from 20 to100 metres or more, with sometimes up to 50 entrances. Badger setts are passed down from generation to generation, with some setts being centuries old. They are remarkably house proud creatures, frequently changing the bedding in their setts to prevent a build-up of fleas and lice. Badgers are “opportunistic omnivores”, with earthworms making up around 60%-80% of their diet. They are also proficient foragers, with berries and fallen fruit enhancing their earthworm-based diet in the late summer. Their burrowing helps to open up the soil and promote plant growth, and abandoned setts make excellent habitats for foxes, rabbits, and voles.
The rewilding land at Elmore has a clan of adult badgers, two white and two classic stripy, that we've identified so far. White badgers – also known as leucistic badgers - are incredibly rare in Europe so we feel honoured to have not one but two. Leucistic badgers are those who are genetically born with less pigmentation, not to be confused with albino badgers, who have red eyes. Recent camera trap footage has shown the females dragging fresh bedding into the sett, and we are eagerly awaiting to see if this means there will be cubs emerging in late spring.
White animals have often been associated with folklore, a white hart (deer) has lent its name to many a pub in the UK and in Celtic mythology were the symbol of messengers from the other world, or as a quest in Arthurian legend. In Celtic folklore, badgers are associated with wisdom and protection, and in Irish folklore they are associated with transformation and change. In Europe the badger is associated with magic and witchcraft. So perhaps Elmore’s white badgers may serve as our mascot for the magical, transformative, rewilding quest we have here.
Badgers have an amazing reproductive tool called delayed implantation, which means that whilst they may mate at any time of year, cubs are all born in late-January to late-February at the same time. They will spend approximately 12 weeks being cared for in the sett by their parents before emerging to hunt for themselves. Most badgers will join the family clan, expanding the sett to accommodate, but occasionally territory issues may mean the young badger leaves, establishing its own sett elsewhere.
Contrary to our literary and societal view of the badger as grumpy, vicious and unpleasant, the camera trap footage taken on the estate shows our badgers to be playful, sociable creatures. After wondering how the camera trap came to be so dirty, footage revealed the curious creatures nosing and pawing at it, suspicious of this new 'thing' in their domain.
In the UK badgers have largely been blamed for the rise in bovine tuberculosis, and in the late 2010s widespread culling efforts took place. However, these were found to have little impact on the spread of bovine tuberculosis. The Wildlife Trusts state that cow-to-cow contact is the main cause of the spread of the disease. Nevertheless, badgers are still ostracised and scapegoated as a cause and their reputation around farmers still deleterious. This, combined with loss of habitat and road mortality continues to threaten Britain’s badgers significantly.
Please see @rewilthings on Instagram for recent badger cam footage
By Briony Cobb, Nature, Ecology & Wellness Guardian
