Badgers are coming back to the capital

COME twilight, across the suburbs of London, badgers are on the move. They need to fatten up before the lean days of winter, using the cover of night to roam across parks, fields, woods and gardens in search of tasty earthworms, plump insects and fallen fruit.

Badgers live in underground burrows, called setts, which they excavate with powerful, clawed paws. A sett is usually a family affair, with up to eight animals sharing a network of tunnels. Although communal during the day, when they rest and sleep underground, at night each adult will set off to forage separately from the others.

The badger — or brock — is wellcamouflaged for night work, with a silvery-grey body and short fluffy tail, a black belly and paws, all topped off with a black-and-whitestriped face. These strong, well-built animals can reach one metre in length, but are cautious and timid animals, preferring to avoid trouble if they can.

As London expanded, badgers were driven out, but they do seem to have regained lost ground over the past few decades, and are relatively plentiful on the suburban fringes of the city. Some appear to be using the relative safety of railway corridors to explore deeper into the city; with occasional sightings reported from inner London boroughs. These are likely to be young males, seeking new territory, although opportunities to set up home or find a mate within the inner city are limited.

Badgers face many threats, with as many as 50,000 adult badgers killed on British roads each year, and illegal persecution still occurs. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of badgers are due to be shot this autumn in western England in an ongoing and controversial experiment to eradicate tuberculosis in cattle. Let’s hope that London can offer a safe refuge for these shy, night-time stars.

@WildLondon