With Calvin Jones

The Badger is the largest Irish member of the mustelid or weasel family and is one of our most distinctive mammals. Its stocky body, short, powerful limbs and striking black-and-white head markings make the badger unmistakeable. Adult badgers are typically 65-80 cm (25-32 inches) long and weigh between 8 and 12 kilos (17 and 27 pound).

Badgers are found throughout Ireland, although because they are primarily active at night they are rarely seen. They live in family groups or clans of up to twelve individuals that occupy a large network of underground tunnels and chambers known as a sett. Badgers are clean animals: they regularly change the bedding in their sleeping chambers and have been observed bringing bedding to the surface to “air” before taking it back underground again.

At dusk the clan will emerge from the sett to forage over a shared territory of between 125 and 375 acres. They are true omnivores and will eat a huge variety of food including invertebrates, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, carrion, vegetables, fruit and even cereals. Their favourite food, however, is earthworms, and a badger can devour up to 200 of them in a single night.

In common with other mustelids, badgers mark out their territory and communicate using scent. Each badger produces a characteristic musky scent from special glands, and as well as marking territory this scent serves to identify the individual badger and to maintain the social harmony within the clan.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own