Freshly Dug-out earth Outside a Sett Entrance

Badgers are born to dig! This means that at an active sett, you will more often than not find signs of digging activity.

Sometimes badgers dig out large rocks. Sometimes they dig out the skull of a long-dead badger. But mostly, badgers dig out soil, and lots of it! And that's just what has been going on in the picture above.

The picture shows the view from above, looking down onto the spoil heap, and the hole from which the soil was dug. (The hole is down in the bottom left of the picture.) Nearly all of the soil on the spoil heap is loose. It had probably been dug out the night before I took the photograph.

Because the soil is freshly dug-out and loose, you can see where the badger has been treading. The imprints of the badger's feet can be seen all over the spoil heap.

Of course, badger footprints can be found in lots of places, not just on the spoil heap. As we follow the trail of the badger away from the sett entrance, we will see more footprints, and take a closer look at them . . .