Living with badgers

Albermarle

The house is on a side of a hill and the garden is tiered,  so the entrance to the sett which is on the third tier is about 2 meters higher than our ground floor. 

So at least would seem unlikely they will be burrowing into your foundations.

twopenny

Just asked our local badger conservation guy as I saw him today and he said the most likely reason for a new set to be built would be if the old area had been disturbed or some threat like flood water and such which is likely given the weather we've had.

It also is likely that it's a female looking for a site away from aggressive males so that she can give birth quietly and the cubs are safe. The males can kill youngsters if they are not their own.
That you will see and hear little or nothing till the youngsters start exploring end of April, May more likely out of the garden as they don't like human activities and then all will go quiet again.

So you should have nothing to worry about.

Emily_Joy

Thank you @twopenny - to the best of my knowledge male badgers can kill youngsters even if they are their own - they can't tell them apart, being badgers 

I think it is likely be a flood - there is a little stream at the bottom of the hill where the water was raising by almost 2 meters recently... on the other side of the stream there is woodland where the sett might have previously been.

Emily_Joy

Our furry visitors seem to be expanding their home... A new sett entrance has been added during the past  couple of weeks or so. We rarely visit this part of the garden - it is delightfully cool and pleasant when the temperature is pushing towards 30 degrees, but this doesn't happen often. 

A new entrance is nearly in the middle of the lawn. Our local badgers preservation group didn't respond. I have however found out that there is an ongoing badger cull in the county and some 600 has been killed last year. Perhaps they feel safer in our garden than in the forests now 

 

twopenny

Looks more like digging for worms 🙂

They'll be wanting to beat the cold and will be getting ready for mating and birth.

I used to get it in my lawn at my last home. Had to watch where I was walking as it could twist an ankle.

The cull will have disturbed them. While it is a horrible thought the protection we've put on them and no natural predators they have got too many (like humans🙂) and the overcrowding is causing disease among them. The details of that are pretty awful too.