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Latrines

Badger latrines are small pits (often called dung pits), which in appearance are not unlike those created by badgers when digging for grubs or other underground prey. These pits do of course serve a very different purpose, and are used by the badgers as toilets. For those of us looking for evidence of the presence of badgers, they are also another useful indicator of badger activity.

Badger latrines are usually easy to identify. No other animal in Britain deposits its droppings in pits in the way that the badger does. Cats dig pits for their droppings, but they cover them up afterwards, while badgers leave their droppings exposed. Foxes, in complete contrast to the badger, deposit their droppings not in pits, but on tussocks of grass, molehills, or other raised and prominent places.

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Dung

Badger droppings tend to look like those of dogs in size and shape, but they vary in appearance depending on what the badger has been eating. When the diet is mostly earthworms the droppings are quite soft and muddy; while other foods leave more clearly identifiable traces such as the wing cases of beetles, the husks of grain, and the stones or pips of fruits and berries such as yew berries.

Picture © Steve Jackson. The photo shows dung which is full of cereal husks. See the Photo File for a larger version of this image.

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Where to find latrines

Dung pits can often - though not always - be found close to the sett. Sometimes the pits are very close indeed, within a few metres of the sett entrances (or even, on occasion, right outside a sett entrance!). In my experience, the use of latrines so close to the sett is greatest in winter, when the badgers (especially sows with young cubs) are not always keen to go very far from home.

Latrines are also found further away from the sett, particularly where badger pathways cross through landscape features such as hedgerows, ditches or the edge of a wood or copse.

Some latrines consist of just a few (even just one) dung pit, while others are larger, with a dozen or more pits. These larger latrines often mark the boundary of a badger clan's home range or territory, and are referred to as territorial dung pits. When badgers use these latrines, they deposit not just dung, but also secretions from their anal glands. Hence the latrines act as smelly 'boundary posts', which tell other badgers that they are on the boundary of another clan's home range.

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References

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Additional picture credits

The Eurasian badger photo 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.

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