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Image: Eurasian badger (Meles meles).
Home » Eurasian badger (Meles meles) » Articles :
Article 1: Badger setts
How to recognise a badger sett, and distinguish badger setts from fox earths and rabbit warrens.
See also: 2: Spoil heaps , 3: Bedding material , 4: Scratching posts , 5: Badger paths , 6: Tracks , 7: Badger hairs , 8: Feeding signs , 9: Latrines and dung and 10: Other signs of activity
On this page:
Introduction | Confusion with fox earths and rabbit warrens | Badger setts - tunnel shape | Badger setts - tunnel size | Badger setts - other evidence | Related Badger Pages
In areas where food supplies support good numbers of badgers, a well established badger sett will typically have from around half a dozen to two dozen entrance holes. Each hole will have a heap of excavated material outside, and some of these spoil heaps can be very large. There is however considerable variation in the size of badger setts, both in terms of the number of entrance holes - which are all that we usually see of the sett - and the length of the tunnel systems beyond the entrances. Very small setts may consist of a single hole with one tunnel leading to a chamber a matter of a few metres down. At the other end of the scale, the largest sett that I have seen so far in my home county Northamptonshire had 68 entrances when I last visited, though many of these were blocked. There are records of setts with over 100 entrances!
In Britain, there are two other species of mammal which also dig and live in burrows, namely the fox and the rabbit. It is sometimes possible to confuse fox earths or rabbit warrens with badger setts. Fox earths usually have just one or two entrances, like smaller badger setts. Rabbit warrens can range in size from small tunnel systems with just a few holes, to large systems with a great many holes. In the case of warrens dug into soft sand deposits, the spoil heaps outside the holes may be almost as big as those excavated by badgers.
Badger setts can also be mistaken for fox earths or rabbit warrens. This confusion can arise because both foxes and rabbits will occupy badger setts. Foxes are generally only casual visitors to badger setts. However they will take over disused setts to use as breeding earths in the early part of the year, or they may move into disused parts of occupied badger setts to raise their cubs. The typical signs of foxes - food remains outside the hole, and a strong pungent odour emanating from within - may then be found at these setts.
Rabbits are found in badger setts much more frequently. Like foxes, they too will take over disused setts. They will also cohabit with badgers in larger, occupied setts, using both their own burrows within the sett, and badger tunnels too. Their characteristic droppings are then found outside the entrances, and the rabbits themselves will be seen at the sett quite often. Sometimes the rabbits will have been present at the sett site before the badgers, the badgers having made their sett by enlarging the original rabbit burrows.
Fortunately, there are features common to nearly all badger setts which help us to distinguish them from the burrows dug by foxes or rabbits. The shape and size of tunnels excavated by badgers are usually quite different to those dug by the other species. There is also other evidence that you can often find at a badger sett which helps to confirm its identity.
On mainland Europe and Asia, there are many other mammals which dig burrows that might be confused with badger setts. I am unable to provide guidance on the identification of the dens of those other species. However, the information on this page and others dealing with badger setts and signs, should for the most part be true of badger setts wherever they occur.
Most badger tunnels also have a distinctive shape as well as size, being wider than they are tall, with a flattened bottom. This gives them a shape like a 'D' on its side. Tunnels excavated by foxes or rabbits tend to be rounder or oval in shape, and taller than they are broad.
The tunnels excavated by badgers are around 30 cm or 12 inches in diameter, certainly no smaller than 25 cm in diameter. Rabbit burrowss, which may be quite large at their entrances, soon narrow to a diameter of about 15 cm.
A test that I sometimes use to decide whether a hole is badger or rabbit is to put my hand down into the tunnel. If I cannot open my hand out without my fingers touching the sides before it is fully open, it is a rabbit burrow. If I can open my hand right out and move it around within the hole, it is a badger tunnel. If I feel intense pain, and withdraw my hand to find a black and white animal with its jaws firmly clamped round my hand, then it is definitely a badger tunnel!
Seriously though, do be careful when putting your hand down into strange animal burrows. On one occasion, I was about to carry out this test on a hole I wasn't too sure about, when I noticed bees flying in and out of the hole. There was obviously a bees' nest down there. I don't think that they would have appreciated my intrusion - and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have appreciated their reaction! It is also possible that wasps may make their nests inside disused burrows, so watch out!
Further clues to look for which confirm that you have found a sett rather than a fox earth or rabbit warren are described in more detail on other 'Setts and signs' pages. Just follow the links above.
Find out more about the Setts of the Eurasian badger.
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