The Badger Track and Sign Thread.

[Bushwhacker]

Further to Barn Owl's brilliant suggestion here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73612&p=913033#post913033

This will be a database for positively ID'd track and sign for badgers only (feel free to start threads for other animals).

I'll kick it off and if anyone has more please add to it. I also feel that imperfect/partial prints on different substrates would be most beneficial as 99% of the time that is what you will find in the field.
Hopefully we can build up a great point of reference over time.

Here's a nice print to start with.

A typical sett entrance, even a bit of rabbit droppings at the front too!
Note the spoil heap and the bedding. Badgers regularly clean out and gather fresh bedding.

Latrine - consistency and colour of scat can vary according to diet. Mainly quite near to a sett but are also used to mark territory too.

No, not another sett entrance.

Brock has dug up a bees nest for a feast.

Some more scat containing rabbit fur (I think). This wasn't in a latrine and there were lumps of this everywhere.

Badger trail through the ramsons. I especially like this because it's a perfect crossroads - no human interference at all.

Scratching log that's been well used. This would be an ideal place to hide nearby and try to spot them.

Another feast. This time it's a wasp nest that's been dug up.

 

[JonathanD]

Bit picture heavy...

 

[21st century pict]

Badger Meles meles
...
.....Babger's walking gait. .

.Badger path. .Badger path.Hair on barbed wire .Bedding] Winter scat very loose.
Spring scat.
..Summer scat dry and composed mostly of raspberry and wheat seeds .
.Babger path to latrine..

.Wasp nest raded by Bager.

.

 

[ocean1975]

couple of badger prints.

Also a picture of a skull i found.

 

[Bushwhacker]

 

[JonathanD]

Here's some classic fence sign..

 

[shaggystu]

bit more classic fence/wall sign

the kind of gap brock looks for;


the kind of thing he leaves behind;

 

[Retired Member southey]

Badger skull photo taken at Aldershot Military Museum, will ask if I can gets some better pics out of the case,

 

[shaggystu]

a few photo's from earlier today, i'd hoped that going out with a good covering of snow would help me answer a question that's been bugging me for a while, and it did, i can now see exactly where the badgers are going under a fence into a field and things make more sense. unfortunately the main badger track that i was 100% certain was the one that they use going to and from the sett every night hasn't been touched for days, so back to the drawing board with that one. anyway, the photo's;

ignore the really well trodden patch in front of the hole that brock dug, that's mainly trodden down by my dog telling me "dad, dad, look, look, it's that smell that we follow"

a closer shot of the hole

this is a closer shot of the track that you can see middle right on the photo above

first part of the solution to my problem, there's more than one badger using this trail, or maybe the same animal using the same trail twice in the same night

through the fence and into the open fields

one trails heads this way

another one this way

the snow's really helped me out here, i think the badger loops back on itself and then goes over the same little section of trail every night. shame really that i have to re-think what i already knew for sure, but it's all part of the fun

thanks for looking

stuart

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Just a few photos of some badger tracks found this afternoon....

 

[blacktimberwolf]

A badger's passage through a thicket ;

Badger's set under a pine tree adjacent to a disused sand quarry.

There are some visible tracks in the foreground, near the entrance.