The Food of the European Badger

An earthworm.

The European badger is an omnivore - it eats all sorts of plant and animal foods. The main types of food eaten are as follows:

Earthworms

Over most of Britain and western Europe, badgers eat more earthworms than anything else. Why does such a large animal bother eating such small creatures? Well, there are three reasons.

Firstly, earthworms are a very good source of protein. A study has shown that earthworms are as good as prime beef! Badgers who eat a lot of earthworms are heavier and healthier than those who don't.

Secondly, earthworms are often easy to catch. On dark, mild, damp nights, earthworms come up to the surface of the ground. (They do this so that they can find leaves to eat, and so that they can mate.) On nights like this, if badgers go to the right places, they can find earthworms lying on the ground, and snap them up!

Finally, although earthworms are fairly small, there are lots of them! There can be as many as 30 large earthworms in one square metre of ground. Each earthworm weighs around 5 grammes. If a badger eats 200 of them (and they very often do!), that's a kilogramme of food!

The best places for badgers to find earthworms are in fields that are grazed by cattle or sheep. Here, the grass is short, and this makes it easier for the badgers to catch worms. Badgers find it more difficult to catch worms in fields with long grass. Woodlands are also good places for badgers to find worms (but not conifer plantations - the soil is not right for earthworms).

So on dark, mild and damp nights, badgers can usually be found in fields and woodlands, eating earthworms. Sometimes though, the ground is dry, or it is too cold for earthworms to come up to the surface. On nights like this, badgers go foraging for other foods instead.

Insects and other "creepy crawlies"

The following are eaten:

Large beetles (such as dung beetles, which are found in cow pats).
The larvae (grubs) of crane flies, certain moths, and beetles. (These feed on the roots of grasses and are dug up by the badger.)
Wasp larvae. (Badgers often dig out wasp nests so that they can eat the larvae.)
Honey and larvae from bumblebee nests.