Reading the woodland after dark

Badgers are among our most familiar mammals, yet most of us have never seen one. They emerge at dusk, work the fields and hedgerows through the night, and are back underground before the dog walkers arrive. What they leave behind, though, is remarkably generous. A single badger clan can produce a trail of evidence that is easy to read once you know what you are looking for — and reading it is one of the great quiet pleasures of a British countryside walk.

Badgers are creatures of habit. They use the same paths, the same latrines and the same sett entrances for generations, sometimes for centuries. That means the signs you find are not random: they form a map of a territory, and once you can follow it you begin to understand how these animals live without ever needing to disturb them.

Sett entrances: the strongest clue of all

The sett is the heart of badger life, and its entrances are unmistakable once you have seen a few. Look for a hole that is wider than it is tall, with a flattened arch or a rounded D-shape, roughly 25 to 30 centimetres across. Rabbit burrows are smaller and rounder, and often clustered on a slope with bare soil; fox earths tend to be larger, untidier and frequently smell strongly of fox.

Outside a badger entrance you will usually find a spoil heap — fresh soil that has been pushed out from inside — and often a scattering of bedding. Badgers are fastidious housekeepers and regularly drag in bracken, dry grass, straw and leaves to line the sleeping chamber. Look for freshly pulled vegetation near an entrance, or wisps of dry bedding caught on brambles along the route.

• A main sett may have five to twenty entrances, linked by well-worn paths and often with large mounds of excavated soil.
• Outlying setts are smaller, with one or two holes, and may be used only occasionally.
• Entrances are often dug into a bank, under a hedgerow, or beneath the roots of a large tree for stability.
• Fresh digging, smooth worn edges and flies around the hole all suggest recent activity.

Latrines: the boundary markers

Badgers do not toilet just anywhere. They dig shallow pits, usually 10 to 15 centimetres across, in a scoop about 5 centimetres deep, and use the same ones repeatedly. These communal latrines sit on the edges of a territory, along paths, beside field margins and near sett entrances — they are the clan's noticeboard, telling neighbours where the boundary lies.

Fresh badger dung is dark, soft and often shiny, and may contain visible remains of earthworms, beetles or fruit stones. As it ages it darkens and flattens. A latrine is usually a small cluster of pits rather than a single one, and the ground around it will often be scratched and bare. If you find a latrine, you are almost certainly standing on a regularly used route.

Snuffle holes and torn-up turf

Badgers feed largely on earthworms, and they find them by smell, pushing their snouts into the soil and flicking out a shallow, conical hole. A good night's work leaves a patch of turf pockmarked with these dips, each one maybe 5 to 10 centimetres across and shaped like an inverted cone.

These are the snuffle holes, and they are one of the easiest signs to spot in a pasture or a lawn. In summer the damage can look dramatic: large patches of grass rolled back and torn, sometimes with neat rolls of turf, as badgers hunt for leatherjackets and chafer grubs. Wasp and bumblebee nests are also dug out, leaving a scattering of comb and earth.

• Snuffle holes are shallow and conical, unlike the deeper, messier scrapes of foxes.
• Damage often appears overnight and follows a wandering, snout-led pattern.
• Look along field edges, under hedgerows and in old orchards, where soil is soft and worms are plentiful.

Tracks, runs and stray hairs

Badgers are heavy animals, and they wear their paths deeply. A badger run is a narrow, smooth, well-trodden trail, often running under a gap in a hedge or beneath a fence line where the ground is polished and clear of leaves. Runs radiate from the sett like spokes and connect directly to latrines and feeding areas.

In soft mud you may find footprints: broad, with five toes and clear claw marks, quite different from the smaller, four-toed prints of foxes or cats. Badger prints are roughly 6 to 8 centimetres wide and show the whole flat of the foot — badgers walk plantigrade, like us. Look too for coarse guard hairs caught on barbed wire or bramble thorns along a run; badger hair is long, wiry and has a distinctive banded look, pale at the base and dark towards the tip.

Looking without disturbing

Badgers and their setts are protected in the UK by law, and the greatest damage a well-meaning wildlife gardener can do is to disturb a sett by digging, blocking entrances or repeatedly visiting at close range. Observe from a distance, keep dogs on a lead near sett entrances, and never shine bright lights directly into a hole.

The best way to enjoy badgers is patiently, at a sensible distance, ideally from a hide or behind a hedge on a still, damp evening. If you find fresh signs in your own garden, count yourself lucky — and consider leaving a wild corner untouched, with a few log piles and rough grass, so that the night shift has somewhere to forage in peace.