Badger Ecology

Badger Facts

  • Badgers live on average 3-5 years – many die within their first year – some live to age 15+
  • Badgers can mate at almost any time of year and delay impregnation until they are ready to.  Gestation period of approx 7-9 weeks
  • Post mortems on pregnant sows indicate between 1-5 cubs born with 2 or 3 the norm. Defra average is 2.7 per litter
  • Estimated badger population = 325,000 in England. It is difficult to know the true figure. Over 50,000 die each year on the roads, over 50% of infants die in their first year from infanticide, infestation and severe diarrhoea.

Badgers and Disease Spread

  • bTB is spread through ingestion, inhalation, faeces, saliva, bite wounds and urine etc. Bite wounds a big problem with badgers.
  • Exceptionally as few as 70 bacilli(0.03ml) can initiate the disease in some cases and up to a few million in others.
  • An infected badger can exceptionally excrete as many as 1.5 million bacilli per teaspoon of urine (300,000 per ml). Often referred to as “super excretors”
  • With infection in badgers just one or two individuals in a social group may be infected. The rate varies from nil % to 100 %
  • U.V. light (sunlight) inactivates M. bovis bacilli.
  • M. bovis can remain viable for a long time on pasture
  • Evidence suggests M. bovis can remain viable for 6 months or more in soil (i.e. in a sett).

Badger Behaviour

  • Badgers are naturally creatures of habit, using the same runs repeatedly
  • Badgers will rarely abandon their main setts, with some being 100s of years old.
  • Badgers have a sense of smell approx 800 times more sensitive than our own and use it to move around their territories.
  • Badgers mark their territory boundaries using latrines / dung pits and use their sense of smell to navigate.

Main Spoligotypes

The results of the geographic spoligotyping exercise on reactor cattle is presented below:

-          Type 9 "  isolated in 44% Cornwall/Devon, 20% Dyfed.

-          Type 10 " 79% Glos. SB 0272

-          Type 11 " 93% Devon / Somerset. SB 0274

-          Type 12 " 94% Cornwall. SB 0271(MAINLY  CENTRAL/WESTERN END)

-          Type 13 " Sussex. SB 0273

-          Type 15 " 89% Cornwall. SB 0275 (MAINLY NORTH COAST/EAST END)

-          Type 17 " 66% Here /Worcs / Glos. SB 0263

-          Type 20 " 95% Cornwall. SB 0145 (MAINLY PENWITH -WESTERN END)

-          Type 21 " 74% Somerset / Avon. SB 0130

-          Type 22 " 84% Gwent / Here / Worcs. SB 0673

-          Type 25 " 79% Staffs / Derbys. SB 0129

-          Type 35 " 77% Here / Worcs / Shrops. SB 0134

Need to Know

  • The Protection of Badgers Act 1992,

 -          The Act does not grant any rights.

-          It creates various criminal offences.

-          It is an offence to take, kill, injure or commit cruelty to badgers.

-          It is an offence to interfere with badger setts.

A person is not guilty of an offence if:

-          They take a disabled badger to tend it with the aim of releasing it.

-          They kill a badger which appears to be so seriously injured…

-          They accidentally kill or injure a badger.

“A badger sett” means any structure or place which displays signs indicating current use by a badger.

Please see link to Natral England guidelines on badger setts in 'current use'

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/WMLG17_tcm6-11815.pdf

         badger skull     badger-sett

         badger sett     badger run

website design and development by Daneswood