A Badger Sett Entrance

The trail of the badger begins at the animal's home, its sett.

The most simple badger sett is just a single tunnel dug into the ground, with a chamber at the end of the tunnel. The badger sleeps in the chamber during the day, in a nest which it makes from dry grass, leaves, straw or bracken.

Most setts however are bigger than this. They have more entrance holes, more tunnels, and more chambers. Many of the tunnels join up with each other, so the sett is like an underground maze.

Of course, other animals live in underground homes too. Foxes live in earths, and rabbits live in warrens. These underground homes can sometimes look like badger setts. So, if we are going to follow the trail of the badger, we must first be sure that we have found a badger sett, and not a fox earth or rabbit warren. How can we tell if this hole is a badger sett entrance?

First of all, look at the shape of the shape of the tunnel. It's not round or circular. The width of the hole is greater than its height, and it looks rather like a letter D, on its side, like this: . If we measured the entrance, we would find that it is about 20 cm (8 inches) across, and may even be as much as 30 cm (12 inches). A fox hole is a little smaller than this, rounder in shape, and its height is greater than its width. A rabbit hole is even smaller, around 15 cm (6 inches) or so across.

There's another clue just outside the hole. Remember I said that the badger sleeps in its chamber in a nest which it makes from dry grass, leaves, straw or bracken? To make their nests, badgers scratch up large bundles of grass, leaves, straw or bracken, and then they drag these bundles back to the sett, and take them down to their chambers. Sometimes, badgers leave a bundle of bedding material outside the sett - and that is exactly what has happened here.

Now let's follow the trail of the badger away from the sett entrance, and see what other badger signs we can find.