There are estimated to be about 250,000 to 350,000 badgers in Britain, but the only badger most people will ever see is a dead one at the side of the road. Amazingly, about 50,000 are killed on Britain's roads each year.

I'm watching and filming activities at a local badger sett in East Yorkshire, gradually getting to know the individuals and observing badger behaviour around the sett. In time I hope to watch them away from the sett and find out where they forage and how they interact with neighbouring badger clans.

Using an infra-red camera trap I'm surveying several badger setts, finding which holes are occupied and at what time of night the badgers emerge and return. The camera takes a still image and one minute of video whenever it is triggered. In daylight it produces colour images and at night it switches to infra-red and produces black and white images.

Here are some still images from the camera trap:

An analysis of camera trapping is shown below, indicating the times of day at which the badgers are above ground and around the sett.

Sett KCP: February 2009 (sunset 16:45 - 17:39, sunrise 07:50 - 06:54 GMT)

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	18	19	20	21	22	23	00	01	02	03	04	05	06

Sett GP: March 2009 (sunset 17:41 - 18:37, sunrise 06:51 - 05:39 GMT)

5
4
3
2
1
	18	19	20	21	22	23	00	01	02	03	04	05	06

Sett GP: December 2009 (sunset 15:41 - 15:51, sunrise 08:22 - 07:59 GMT)

13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	18	19	20	21	22	23	00	01	02	03	04	05	06

Horizontal axis shows time at sett.
Vertical axis shows number of photos acquired.

A commonly held belief is that badgers simply leave their setts at dusk and return again at dawn. These graphs show their movements to be much more erratic, returning to the sett many times during the night.

How badgers dig their sett: "One badger falleth on his back, another layeth earth on his belly, so taking the hinder feet in his mouth draweth the belly-laden badger out of the hole and having disburthened himself re-enters and doth the like until all be finished." Nicholas Cox (1721)

"What is important about the badger is that it has survived. It is still here. It has not, like so many of our wild animals, the wolf, the wild-boar, as well as the bear, been hunted into extinction. Man might have done his best to wipe it out, but he has failed." Ernest Dudley