Badger Surveys

Legislation

Badgers, Meles meles, are widespread throughout Britain and are legally protected by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 because of animal welfare issues. This means that it is illegal to injure or kill a Badger or interfere with a Badger sett.

Survey

A Badger survey undertaken by the Wildlife Survey unit would follow best practice guidance by undertaking the following:

• Collate available desk records from the Local Biological Records Centre and the Local Badger Group
• Identify the location of any setts and their status be it active, partially used, disused
• Identify any evidence of badgers: snuffle holes, footprints, guard hairs and paths
• Define areas of suitable badger foraging
• Define measures needed to ensure legal compliance

The Wildlife Survey Unit also undertakes bait-marking studies to identify territory size, and relationships between setts. This survey involves feeding different clans of Badgers food containing different coloured plastic pellets, by then examining the latrines for plastic pellets evidence can be found linking setts or foraging areas with particular clans. The plastic pellets cause no harm to the Badgers.

The Wildlife Survey Unit are also experienced in the creation of artificial setts as a means of mitigation, the creation of badger road tunnels to prevent road casualties and the licensed exclusion of existing setts.

Calendar

Camera trapping


The company undertakes camera trapping which is critical in identifying the use of a sett and therefore the legal protection it receives. The video below shows a typical output of a camera trapping exercise, showing a hole that was not showing obvious signs of current use but had sporadic use by Badgers using it as an outlier sett.

Badger (Meles meles)

A Badger sett, legally protected from interference and disturbance

A classic field sign, Badger hair snagged on barbed wire