Badger habitat. Badger holes. Where does the badger live in nature
Signs of "permanent", or, "wintering", badger burrows ("towns", "burrows"): they necessarily have several exits ("otnorks"); packed trails of approaches (at least one very well-marked); it is regularly cleaned, the old bedding from the "boiler" and crumbled soil from the transitions are raked out; they have a gutter in front of the main entrance (sometimes quite high - in old, perennial ones); in autumn, before the badger sets in for the winter, there are areas of “mowed” grass or heaps of dry leaves, traces of dragging nearby; in the spring, next to the entrance, koloboks or rolls of grass are the remains of “plugs” (“plugs”), exactly the same can be seen at the burrows and late autumn 1-3 days before the occurrence of the badger; "toilet" - (hole in the ground) at a distance of 20-75 meters from the town.
Signs of “temporary burrows” (“daytime”) burrows: the presence of a “toilet” is the only reliable sign of the presence of a temporary burrow, and therefore it is much more difficult to search for them.
The badger never makes a toilet anywhere, but only near the holes, most often near the path in the direction of the main "hikes" towards feeding (fields of grain crops, wet places, etc.). He leads sedentary life, has one permanent, "native", place for wintering.
He can change it only in force majeure circumstances: flooding or damage to burrows by humans, significant depletion of the food supply within a radius of 2-3 km (clearing down forests “to zero”, fires, swamping or flooding, etc.).
But even in these cases, he regularly checks his former "lands" and holes and returns if the situation has improved. The young of the next generations may also settle there. With strong seasonal pressure from people and livestock (mushroom berries, mobile apiaries, transhumance grazing, etc.), badgers sometimes leave such holes for the entire “summer” season, especially if it is difficult to dig a new town in this area (close unpaved water, frequent water fluctuations in reservoirs, "heavy" soil, etc.).
Often they move from one makeshift burrow to another (that's why there are more toilets than badgers) and return to their "native" burrow only immediately before bedding. More than once I observed that, even starting to clean the burrow and prepare fresh bedding, the badger went to temporary huts during the day: it seemed that he worked at night, and the dogs showed that it was empty. And so on until the cold.
If a badger toilet with fresh “contents” is found, and there is no town (burrow) nearby, then you need to look for a day-time burrow (temporary hut). It is difficult to find such burrows: they do not have pronounced paths, large ejections of soil at the entrance, visible from afar, often so overgrown with grass and undergrowth that you can only see the entrance while squatting. But they are very promising in terms of hunting.
It is better to start the search from the toilet: try to determine the direction of the path (there will be feeding places in one direction, a hole in the other). If the path is lost, first of all, you need to try to choose and inspect the most likely places within a radius of up to 50-75 meters: the slopes of hillocks, artificial hills, under large trees with a crown to the ground, dense thickets near big trees among small forests, ravines, etc.
On the open places the paths to the hole are clearly visible in the morning, while the dew is holding, and especially if there is frost. Well, the last option - moving in a spiral, starting from the toilet, methodically inspect the entire surface to the ground within a radius of up to 75 meters. A dog of any breed can be of great help in the search (burrows only on a leash!) - wet grass keeps the smell well, and the shallow depth of temporary huts allows you to smell the animal in the hole.
The best time to search for new and check old burrows is early spring, when the snow has already melted, the burrows are being cleaned by the beast, throwing out “plugs” and old nesting litter. The grass has not grown yet, and burrows, and fresh heaps of earth, and debris are clearly visible from afar.
It is good to combine the search for holes with the collection of mushrooms - both the feeding places of the badger and mushrooms are most often found in places with high humidity, which is apparently associated with more abundant and lush vegetation here and, consequently, with large quantity"roots" and "worm bugs".
Whenever I see a badger digging, I make sure to check for holes in all suitable places nearby. Often burrows are in dense thickets of bird cherry, I don’t know the reasons, but the badger eats its fallen berries very willingly, and in early autumn the pits of the toilets are filled with bones.
The relief of the area where badgers live is very diverse: from swampy lowlands with oxbow lakes and streams to rather high hills, from taiga to forest-steppe. Wintering burrows are also found on slopes (multilevel, more than 3 meters deep), and on flat areas, and on the slopes of ravines, and even on islands and near oxbow lakes (with a depth of no more than a meter!
I often meet in different sources statements about the attachment of the badger to water bodies, even about the paths to the watering place, where, supposedly, it is necessary to guard or set traps. In our area, I don’t notice any “binding” of badger holes to water bodies, moreover, 25-30 percent of holes do not have close water bodies at all. I’m not talking about “paths to a watering place” - I have never met!
I don’t connect the badger’s resettlement with the fields of grain crops, on the contrary, many fields are abandoned and overgrown with weeds, but the badger has not become smaller there.
But the emergence of more and more farms engaged in animal husbandry has become catastrophic for the badger population! Within a radius of 1-2 km from these farms, the badger disappeared completely, even towns with a 40-50-year history were empty.
As, however, roe deer, hares, partridges, black grouse disappeared and only foxes remained. I connect this, on the one hand, with the competition of freely roaming sheep and pigs, and, on the other hand, to a greater extent, with the loose keeping of dogs. Look for a badger here is not worth it.
When the badger hibernates. The hibernation time of a badger depends only on the weather, and the main criterion is the inability to feed. It can repeatedly fall and melt snow (this happens most often), but until the onset of stable cold weather, until the soil surface freezes so much that it stops thawing during the day, the animal does not lie down.
At the first early frosts ("matinees"), it often feeds during the day - a convenient time for hunting with dogs. He does not feed only in rainy weather - he does not like dampness, but on the next clear night he leaves earlier and returns later. By the time it hibernates, its weight has more than doubled!
Interestingly, the badger always very accurately anticipates the "forecast" of the weather and prepares in advance. For 1-3 weeks, it cleans the nesting chamber (boiler) and transitions - rakes out excess land. Then, always in dry weather, "mows" and drags armfuls of grass, dry leaves or moss (less often) to the hole - for bedding in the boiler. Paths of trampled grass towards the burrows are clearly visible during this period. Then, just before the occurrence, for 2-5 days it drags "koloboks" or "rolls" (usually from grass) to plug the exits from the wintering camp.
This animal is widely distributed, but it is not so easy to see it. Again, almost everyone knows what a badger looks like. Let's get to know this animal in more detail. Belonging to the marten family, he has a number of peculiar habits.
Appearance
The body length is from 60 to 90 centimeters, the length of the tail does not exceed 24 centimeters. With a total body length of more than 1 meter and a height of 50-60 centimeters, the badger animal is the largest of its family. The torso, tapering to the shoulders, is connected by means of a short neck to an elongated head extended towards the nose. Thus, the torso, neck and head of the beast form a wedge. The paws are short and powerful. The claws on the front feet are longer than those on the hind feet. This is well demonstrated by badger tracks.
The fur of the beast consists of long awns and a thick undercoat. The silver-gray color of the back and sides is gradually replaced by almost black on the belly and paws. On the muzzle there are two wide black stripes that can start from the nose itself and cover the eyes and ears. The rounded tips of the ears are painted white.
The weight of the animal depends on the season: after waking up - up to 15 kg, before hibernation - up to 25 kg.
habitats
The habitat covers almost all of Europe. Behind Ural mountains the beast can be found almost throughout Russia (except for the extreme northern and arid regions). It is also distributed in China, on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan.
Thus, according to the habitat, the following varieties can be distinguished:
- european badger;
- Asian badger.
This animal often settles in mixed forests. Avoids open steppes and deserts, as well as dense taiga forests. The badger's dwelling is located in places where there is a lot of grass and shrubs, and the soil does not freeze and is not flooded. Where badgers live, there is always at least some body of water nearby: a lake, a swamp, a river.
Lifestyle and habits
Nora
The animal leads night image life, so his eyesight is poorly developed, and his hearing and sense of smell are very good. During the day it mostly sleeps for night hunting.
The animal spends most of its life in a burrow, which, being excellent at digging the ground, it builds, repairs and renovates. These animals can live alone or in families.
In the simplest version, a badger hole consists of one entrance, a tunnel and a nesting chamber at a depth of 1 to 5 meters. The nesting chamber is always landscaped with dry grass and leaves.
Often, badger burrows are connected into a complex labyrinth of many long tunnels, dead ends, nesting chambers and entrances and exits.
It is noteworthy that this animal tries to locate the nesting chambers under the aquifer, so that these chambers are always dry and warm. The animal regularly changes the old litter from the nesting chambers to the fresh one.
An abandoned badger hole can become a home for a fox or a raccoon dog.
It is also interesting that the animal digs special holes for its excrement.
Wintering
Not only having accumulated a sufficient amount of fat, but also having filled its pantries with the necessary supplies, the animal hibernates with the onset of winter. No other member of this family winters like this. Before lying down, he lays all the entrances to the hole with leaves. However, the badger in winter does not sleep like a bear, but sensitively.
He often wakes up, and in the thaw he can even leave the hole. At this time, traces of a badger can be found near the hole. Each individual hibernates in a separate nesting chamber. As soon as the snow begins to melt in spring, the animal finally wakes up.
Nutrition
Like any representative of the mustelids, the badger is considered a predator, but in fact it is an omnivore. Long-term observations allow us to unambiguously indicate what the badger eats.
Its menu includes both vegetable and animal food, but not carrion, which he will not touch even in difficult hungry times.
Badgers feed on insects, amphibians and reptiles: often lizards, rarely snakes. As soon as the time comes for berries, mushrooms and nuts, he willingly absorbs them. A badger eats no more than half a kilogram of food per day.
reproduction
The common badger is a monogamous animal. The formed pair is preserved for the entire time until one of the partners dies. The badger rut begins in spring and ends in summer.
The next spring, the female brings 3-5 cubs, which are blind and completely helpless. Pregnancy lasts from 9 to 12 months. For the first three months of life, the only food for badgers is mother's milk. Then the parents teach them to hunt, and the children switch to regular food.
AT vivo the badger lives from 10 to 12 years.
Economic importance
The badger, destroying many such pests as the larvae of the May beetle, bears, rodents, brings great benefits to the forest and agriculture. However, when settling next to a person, the badger does not hesitate to eat from the garden. This causes harm, but the magnitude of the benefit from it is disproportionately greater.
badger and man
Badger fur has no commercial value. Not every hunter eats meat. Only badger fat, used in folk medicine. This animal is hunted mainly with the help of dogs.
It is thanks to the beneficial properties of badger fat that breeding of badgers has become profitable business. In captivity, these animals live 4-6 years longer than in the wild.
The beast is easily tamed, but never gets along with dogs.
Video
How to find a badger hole in the forest, you will learn from our video.
Badger (Meles meles L., 1758) is a medium-sized animal, appearance not at all like their counterparts from the weasel family.
Description
Its body is wedge-shaped: the wide rear part gradually tapers towards the head. A short, thick neck passes into a small and narrow head. The ears are small and rounded. The paws are short, strong and muscular with a bare surface of the feet, long and strong claws. The tail is short, about the length of the head.
Body length is 60-80 cm, tail - 15-20 cm. The weight of an adult animal changes during the year, it increases from spring to autumn. In the spring, it is about 10 kg, and before the animal leaves for the winter, it already reaches 30 kg.
In general, his appearance is massive and squat.
The badger usually moves slowly and sluggishly, with its head down, but in case of danger it can quickly run in jumps.
The winter fur on the back and sides is high and coarse, consisting mainly of a coarse, stiff awn and a small amount of soft down. The abdomen is covered with short and sparse hair. The tail is quite bushy.
The overall color of the badger's fur is beautiful. The back and sides are light silvery gray with black ripples. This coloration is due to the zoned color of the guard hairs: the main part of the hair is dirty-whitish-yellow, then there is a black belt, and the top is white or grayish-white.
The throat, neck, chest and legs are black. The main part of the abdomen is black with a brown tint, the inguinal region is grayish-brown. The tail is colored, as is the back.
The head is white, two black stripes are clearly distinguished on it, running from the tip of the nose through the eyes, capturing the ears and gradually dissolving with the main color in the neck area.
Summer fur is much lower, rarer and coarser than winter fur, and dirty, brownish and yellowish shades appear in the color.
The badger molts once a year. Starting in spring, it lasts all summer and ends only in late autumn.
Badgers have a well-defined individual variability in color, in connection with this they are divided into two types: light and dark.
Spreading
The habitat of the beast is quite extensive and occupies about half of our country. It inhabits forests, forest-steppes, steppes, deserts and mountains. It is absent only in the tundra and in the northeastern part of Siberia.
The breadth of geographical distribution influenced the racial variability of the species. In our country, the following subspecies are distinguished: Central Russian (European) badger, Caspian, Siberian, Kazakhstani and Amur.
AT middle lane the badger lives in mixed forests, adhering mainly to edges, copses and ravines. The most favorable habitats are considered to be mixed island forests, alternating with fields and meadows. in the deaf coniferous forests the beast also settles, but much less often, and in this case he adheres to the outskirts. He avoids such places because of their lack of food.
When evaluating the suitability of land for an animal, three most important factors must be taken into account: the presence of a forest or bush, favorable conditions for burrowing, and the proximity of water.
The forest is necessary for him as a shelter, a source of food, and also as an environment necessary for life.
Biology
He leads a semi-underground lifestyle, so an important requirement is the availability of places for burrows.
When arranging a hole, the animal chooses places near various reservoirs, and tries to make it so that it can be approached secretly.
Data on the size of its habitat is scarce. Most likely, it is quite extensive, but it is most active approximately within a radius of up to half a kilometer from the hole.
If the grounds are abundant in forage, badger families can live in close proximity to each other.
They prefer to dig holes on the slopes of ravines, river terraces. The soil should be dry sandy or sandy loam, easy to dig with deep groundwater.
The beast always digs the shelter itself; other animals very often use its labors, for example, raccoon dog, less often a wolf.
The badger's hole is a whole system of underground labyrinths with a large number exits. Entire generations of animals live in these settlements for decades. All this time, the network of passages is expanding, being updated: new exits, ditches and chambers are being dug.
Such old branched burrows were called "hillforts".
The exits are usually arched with a length of 4 to 10 m, the nesting chamber is located at a depth of at least 1 m from the surface. The chamber is lined with leaves and grass.
Basically, work on the arrangement of holes takes place in late summer, early autumn.
The beast belongs to omnivorous predators, its nutrition is varied. His diet contains both plant and animal foods. The predominance of one or another depends on the habitat and time of year.
Badger food consists of mouse-like rodents (voles), small birds, amphibians (frogs), reptiles (lizards), insects and their larvae, earthworms. From vegetable feed roots, bulbs and green parts of some plants are used, as well as nuts, berries, fruits. The crops eaten are corn and oats.
The predator leads a twilight-night lifestyle, only in remote places it can sometimes go out during the day, but it does not move far from the shelter
The exit from the hole of the beast coincides quite clearly with the onset of twilight - a little later after sunset.
Of the senses, he has the best developed sense of smell. Vision and hearing are mediocre.
his life for the most part associated with a hole, it is natural for an animal leading a semi-underground lifestyle. In addition, he spends several months of the year constantly in a hole.
By autumn, the animal becomes very fat, subcutaneous fat reaches 4-5 cm in thickness, and its weight almost doubles.
Badger fat has unique healing properties, what is its benefit, you can read in this.
With the advent of cold weather in September-October, the badger stops leaving the hole and plunges into winter sleep, having previously hammered all the exits with leaves and earth.
In winter, in the northern regions, he does not leave it from October to May, and in the south he can fall asleep only for a period of cold weather.
Winter sleep is not hibernation, the animal's body temperature does not fall below 34 degrees. C. In the thaw, he, like a raccoon dog, can come out of the hole
In the spring, the badger leaves the hole with the establishment of positive temperatures and starts cleaning its shelter - preparations for the birth of young begin.
These animals are monogamous, living with the same partner for many years. Mating can take place in different time: summer, early spring and autumn. Pregnancy has a latent stage and lasts from 8 to 15 months. Young growth appears in the spring. There are 2-6 badgers in a litter. They begin to see clearly in about a month, at the same time the teeth erupt. They begin to leave the hole and feed on their own from three months.
The young begin to settle in the fall, at which time pairs are created.
At dusk, a badger can be detected by the noise it makes when moving. With the onset of darkness, he, unlike other nocturnal inhabitants, does not particularly hide.
Other signs of the presence of the animal in the grounds are trodden paths from the hole, which animals use from year to year, they lead hundreds of meters to feeding places, burrows and watering places. There are also numerous digs made in search of food.
Most often, he moves with a small unhurried step or jog.
On wet soil, it is easy to detect badger tracks that are difficult to confuse with any others. The imprint of a five-toed paw is very reminiscent of a miniature footprint.
He has practically no enemies. Only lynx and dogs can pose a danger. A more significant impact on the number of animals is exerted by human activity, through the extermination and ruin of "fortifications".
Competitors can be considered a fox and a raccoon dog.
Meaning and hunting
It is necessary to strictly regulate the production of the badger, it is small in number and is a very useful animal. Its benefit is that it exterminates harmful rodents, insects and dead animals.
His fur is not considered valuable, so the value of his skins is low. The main subject of the desired prey of the beast is badger fat; it, along with bear fat, is highly valued as a good medicine.
Basic hunting methods:
1. Trapping.
2. Hunting with a dog at dusk.
3. Ambush with a gun at a hole and paths.
4. With burrowing dogs.
How do they reproduce? The answers to these and other questions can be found in our material.
Appearance
The badger is an animal that has a long body, smoothly tapering towards the head. Adults can grow up to 90 centimeters and gain weight of about 25 kilograms. Animals have short, massive limbs. Such paws allow badgers to move freely over a wide variety of terrain. The pads of the fingers are crowned with blunt, rather long claws, which enable the animal to create capacious burrows deep in the ground.
Badger fur has a non-uniform color. The coat on the body of the animal has a grayish-black tint with a silver tint. The head of the badger is white with black parallel stripes that extend from the muzzle to the neck.
Lifestyle
Often badgers in the forest live separately from their relatives. However, the vast majority form families. If an increased number of animals is observed in one area, they form small groups. Relatives populate the badger's hole, where the dominant female and male predominate. The size of the territory controlled by the family sometimes reaches an area of \u200b\u200babout 400 hectares.
Animals mark the boundaries of their own possessions with an odorous secret. The spread of a characteristic musky smell tells uninvited guests that the territory is already occupied. Each group of relatives has its own unique secret flavor, which is secreted from special glands located near the tail of the animal.
When a badger fails to reproduce a dense population, the animal leads a solitary lifestyle. In such cases, the animal often finds shelter where it is necessary, and does not pay attention to the creation, arrangement and protection of the hole.
Habitats
The badger is an animal that is widespread throughout Europe. Numerous populations of the animal are observed in Russia. In domestic open spaces, the animal is found almost everywhere beyond the Ural Mountains, in addition to extreme north and dry areas. Badgers also live in Korea and China, on some islands of Japan.
The animal prefers to settle in dense mixed forests. The badger is rarely seen in the steppe regions. Animals live mainly in places where there is an abundance of shrubs and tall grasses, and the soil is never flooded by surface waters.
reproduction
The mating season for badgers begins in the middle of spring or early summer. During this period, the animals begin to look for a suitable pair, which subsequently persists for life. The union between the female and the male ends only in the event of the death of one of the individuals.
Pregnancy in animals is characterized by delays. Carrying babies in the womb usually occurs for 9 months. However, it may take up to one year.
Badger cubs are born deaf, blind and completely unadapted to life. Their only food for the first three months is their mother's milk. Badger cubs acquire relative independence in about six months. Upon reaching this age, young individuals, as a rule, leave the parental nest and go in search of an unoccupied territory. Once in the open spaces free from the encroachments of relatives, young badgers equip own dwelling. AT natural environment animals live up to 14-16 years.
Badger food in nature
Despite their predatory status, badgers are classified as omnivores. The daily diet of animals can be subject to significant changes, based on the time of year. Badgers are nocturnal hunters. During the daytime, these animals prefer to stay in safe burrows, digesting food and gaining energy.
In summer, in places where badgers live, there are plenty of all kinds of rodents, frogs and lizards. It is these creatures that form the diet of animals in warm time of the year. Among other things, badgers do not mind eating earthworms, large insects and their larvae, as well as all kinds of molluscs, slugs. In rare cases, birds that are in trouble are their prey. Sometimes badgers climb low trees, where they are engaged in ruining bird nests. also in summer time sweet vegetable roots, berries, nuts, mushrooms, wild fruits become food for the animal.
With the advent of autumn, badgers regularly make sorties to farmlands. Here, the animals are searching for the remains of crops, absorbing grains of corn, legumes, and other cultivated plants. In winter, when there is a shortage of food, in search of prey, these animals are able to travel tens of kilometers, then returning back to a warm and cozy hole.
Badger hole
An underground shelter is a place with which the existence of an animal is inextricably linked. From the holes where badgers live, members of the family prefer not to move more than half a kilometer away. This happens only when the animal feels an extreme shortage of food.
The passages in the ground, which badgers create with their powerful clawed paws, amaze with their size and ornate structure. The shelter of a family of animals can have a length of up to 80 meters or more. From the hole, as a rule, leads to several exits. If the population of animals in a particular area grows to a significant size, neighboring groups can connect their shelters. At the same time, animals from separate families often come to visit each other. The owners of the burrows are absolutely calm about such behavior.
The burrows where the badgers live are subjected to “general cleaning” several times a year. At the end of autumn, the animals traditionally clean the nesting chambers from accumulated debris, and also change the litter, which consists of dry grasses and moss. Badgers relieve their need each time in the same place, moving away from the shelter at a distance of several tens of meters.
Relationship with a person
Badgers are rarely hunted for meat. After all, the animal has a rather specific, somewhat repulsive aroma. Dishes made from badger meat do not have a very pleasant taste. The fur of the animal also has no commercial value.
Of interest to humans is exclusively badger fat, which finds wide application in the treatment of diseases folk methods. Study of useful properties of this substance was the reason for the organization of farms where they breed animals. Raising badgers for blubber is a fairly lucrative business these days. Animals are easily tamed. However, it is difficult for them to get along with dogs, to which badgers show particular dislike and aggression.
Badger(lat. Meles meles) - a predatory animal from the weasel family.
Badger description and photos.
The badger's body is long and tapers towards the head, up to 60-90 centimeters in length. The weight of a badger can reach 24 kilograms. The paws of these animals are massive, but short: predators stand firmly on them, resting their entire foot. The claws are long and blunt, adapted for digging. The coat of a badger is not monochromatic. The body is black and gray with a hint of silver, and the head is white with two black, vertical stripes.
Types of badgers.
Among these predators, several species are distinguished: Japanese badger, Asian badger, common badger(European), American badger.
Where does the badger live?
The badger's dwelling is a hole with its own system of passages; animals live in families in it. Sometimes there are huge holes, similar to underground towns, in which fifteen families live. Badgers can also share their home with or. The number of family members directly depends on the amount of food in their territory. In the family, badgers distinguish each other by smell. They do not accept strangers, uninvited guests are driven away by the leader of the family. Badgers are very clean animals, they clean their holes and even build toilets separately from their homes.
What does a badger eat?
In search of food, badgers can wander very far. They always use the same roads and paths. Badger in nature is accustomed to travel long distances. During the mating season, they can travel countless miles without much difficulty. In food, they are not picky and eat almost everything. The diet includes fruits and roots as well as small mammals. , rabbits, and especially their cubs, can become a meal for a badger. But most of all, the badger loves to eat earthworms, they are his favorite delicacy.
Badger breeding.
The breeding season for badgers lasts from February to October, but the peak comes in September. These animals are monogamous. The pregnancy of badgers lasts a very long time, from 271 to 450 days. It depends on what time of the year the female became pregnant. From one to four cubs are born, which remain blind for almost five weeks and depend on their parents. They will be able to eat on their own in three months, but they drink milk for four months. Badgers prepare nurseries even before the babies appear, and the female badger gives birth to babies already there. When the cubs grow up and no longer need a nesting hole, it is replaced with a new one, removing the old grass bedding. On the eve of hibernation, in autumn, the brood breaks up and goes into independent life.
