Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

Badgers and Badger Setts are protected by law. I am not going to get into the argument about TB in cattle and who causes it.
This thread is just to show folks how they make their home, brilliant as far as I am concerned. We love em'


Cheers and Beers
Graham/098\

The sett covers a very large area

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In the winter the sheep congregate on the top of the sett to collect heat coming from the sett

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The badgers have many lodgers, the smaller holes are where the rabbits get a free home

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This sett is on our land at the side of our driveway

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We have to keep shifting the soil that the badgers dig out regularlY

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We have to keep an eye on our dogs so they don't go down or that would curtains for the dog

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If we get very heavy snow we help the badgers by putting food out for them

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Over the thirty years we have been here we have seen the sett grow to this size

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We couldn't believe our luck when we started to get down at the house, brilliant

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I will post some pictures of the badgers and you will how they get used to "kind" humans

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Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

Second Lot

When we started getting the bagers down to the house it wasn't long before I got them coming intp the kitchen to feed

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It wasn't very long afterwards when I started to hand feed them

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Eventually the sow badgers brought their cubs to meet us, this was amazing

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The cubs knew no fear and were brilliant from the start, my kids used to sit on the kitchen floor and the feed them from their hands, they loved it as much as the badgers did. It was wonderful to experience this situation. We made many videos.

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Cool. Very interesting.

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good Graham.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Very interesting and surprised, I've never seen a domesticated badger.

Dixiegirl Loc: Alabama gulf coast

Amazing, Graham, and educational for me. The picture of the kids feeding the badger is so cute!

Mollie Loc: melbourne

this is wonderful.....we must all treasure the animals on the earth!

DAVE FISHING Loc: Phoenix,Arizona

sailorsmom Loc: Souderton, PA

Very interesting, Graham! I honestly didn't know badgers could be friendly! Well, guess any animal/human could learn this friendship thing, too!

saycheese Loc: By the Big Lake in West Michigan

I always believed the idea that Badgers are ferocious...until you started sending me pictures of how friendly they really are. Pied Piper of Bagdertown!!

EllieLady Loc: So. CA, USA

They ARE beautiful creatures but...

...please don't believe for one minute that these badgers, just as many other animals which have accommodated to various degrees to humans, are definitely NOT domesticated - - they are still very, very wild.

Graham has said it in more or less the perfect way:

...and you will [see] how they get used to "kind" humans
__________

Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

Pit Bulls can be ferocious they are taught by Druggies to be ferocious to protect their evil doings........But how many people have soft well behaved gentle with kids Pit Bulls.
It's the dog keepers that are ferocious .....surely, the innocent animals are just behaving in the way they were unfortunately trained by thugs.......it's these evil, waste of space individuals
who should be put down not the innocent dogs for doing what they were trained to do.........It's a crazy world.....For some poor animals all around the world.......


Cheers and Beers
Graham/098\

jayway55 Loc: Philadelphia Area - USA

Very interesting post, Graham. I've never seen a badger before, let alone know that they are so friendly. Thanks for sharing.
Jane

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Great images!!!
Im not sure I would have let my girls hand feed the critters, they can get quite testy if they don't get their way .
Kind of like Raccoons here in the US.

Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

Innitially the badgers were very, very timid, they have very, very poor eyesight but enormous sense of smell and hearing. It was a considerable amount of patience and sitting up at the back door at night with the door open with plates of food for them. At first, any sound or movement and they were gone like a shot. Eventually I began talking to them and wore the same clothes so the scent to them was the same. It is such a thrill the first time they ever cross the threshold and are actually indoors. Once or twice after that they just came and walked straight in. A couple of badgers would eat a jarge loaf between them. We used to feed them bread and butter or bread and jam/syrup/peanut butter, anything we offered them they ate, table scraps anything. One badger in particular we called her greedy guts. I used to let her stand up and put her paws on my knees and feed her that way, eventually she would let me stroke her rough fur and pat het her, like you do a dog. One night as she was on her hind legs we noticed her teets and realised she must be feeding babies. Eventually she brought two beuitiful cubs to the house it was unbeleivable. At first the cubs would wait just outside the door and not come in. I never tried to get them to come in, I knew eventually greedy guts would bring them in, after a few vists she did allow the cubs to come indoors, it was fabulous. They were like greedy little puppies but never in all the years I have been here have I seen any fighting or ferrociousness. I am not saying all badgers are always like this I would be a fool if I did. There are yobs, hooligans, trash, who who take great pride in badger baiting with dogs. I am sure any badger that has been scared by a dog would be wary for the rest of it's life. My badger sett is in a wonderful place, a good safe distance from the road, surronded by green fields. The normal food for badgers is earth worms, they say a badger can eat as many as 2/300 in a night, remember badgers are nocturnal hence the bad eyesight. Iv'e rambled on long enough I'm sorry.......

Cheers and Beers
Graham/098\