Back to: Top / Contents

Social organisation

In many parts of Britain and western Europe where food supplies are plentiful, badgers (Meles meles) are social animals, and live together in groups or clans. These groups are headed by a dominant male (boar) and female (sow), and each clan occupies a range which may be defended as a territory. The borders of these ranges are marked with dung pits or latrines, and incursions by members of a neighbouring clan may lead to fierce fights. In those areas where food supplies are not so plentiful however, the European badger lives a more solitary existence, and does not mark out a territory.

This solitary way of life is in fact the norm for most of the other badger species (and indeed for most of the other mustelids, and most other carnivores too). American badgers, Palawan stink badgers and honey badgers are all known to scent-mark features of their home ranges with secretions from their anal glands, but as yet nobody has demonstrated that they mark out territorial boundaries. American badgers have however been seen engaging in vicious fights with their own kind when one badger finds another on its own patch.

Back to: Top / Contents

Picture credits

The photo of the badger footprint used at the head of this Article is © Steve Jackson. Credits for the photos used in the right-hand margin of this page for site navigation can be found on the Credits page.

Back to: Top / Contents