0:01 hi everyone it's liam here from a shot
0:04 of wildlife and in this video i'm going
0:06 to tell you almost everything you need
0:13 european badgers are the uk's largest
0:15 remaining land predator with adults
0:17 growing to between 70 centimeters and a
0:19 meter long
0:20 their weight varies throughout the year
0:23 at six to seven kilos in the summer and
0:26 twice as much in the winter at 12 to 14 kilos
0:28 kilos
0:29 never striking black and white striped
0:32 face with a long and broad snout and
0:35 small eyes and ears
0:37 over most of their bodies their fur is
0:39 silvery grey but their legs and feet are
0:43 darker becoming almost black at the toes
0:45 badges have five forward pointing toes
0:46 on each foot which leaves a
0:48 characteristic footprint and they also
0:56 badgers live in communal family clans
0:57 which can number from just two
1:00 individuals to more than twenty
1:02 they are nocturnal and spend the daytime
1:04 in a series of underground chambers and
1:07 tunnels known as a set
1:09 badger clans sometimes live in a set for
1:12 many years sometimes even decades
1:14 and the largest known set had a tunnel
1:17 network of 879 meters and it had 50
1:24 in places where badges are not
1:26 persecuted they can emerge whilst it's
1:28 still light but usually they'll begin to
1:30 venture out of the set after dark and
1:32 follow well-trodden paths throughout
1:38 their diet includes earthworms slugs and
1:41 snails and wild fruits nuts and seeds
1:43 they're also known to eat small mammals
1:46 such as mice rats squirrels and rabbits
1:49 and amphibians such as frogs and toads
1:50 they're one of the only predators
1:52 capable of catching killing and eating hedgehogs
1:55 hedgehogs
1:57 badges have really poor eyesight but
1:58 this is more than made up for with their
2:01 strong sense of hearing and exceptional
2:03 sense of smell
2:05 during their nightly patrols they'll
2:07 also use a communal toilet known as a
2:09 latrine often along the edges of the
2:11 clan's territory and sensed from this
2:13 let the other badger clans know who has
2:18 badges sometimes roam outside of their
2:20 family's territory and come into contact
2:22 with other unrelated badgers this is
2:24 good news for the females which are
2:27 known as sows as from 12 months of age
2:28 they become ready to breed and can come
2:31 into contact with unrelated males which
2:33 are known as bores
2:35 they can mate at any time of the year
2:37 but this often takes place in february
2:39 or september
2:40 the sow doesn't become pregnant straight
2:43 away and instead carries fertilized eggs
2:45 until december time when she'll become
2:47 pregnant properly and the cubs will
2:50 begin to develop inside her
2:51 this pregnancy lasts from seven to eight
2:54 weeks after which point she'll give
2:56 birth to between one and five cubs deep
3:03 the cubs are born fearless and blind but
3:05 on a diet of rich milk they grow quickly
3:07 and by around 8 weeks of age they look
3:09 like miniature versions of her mother
3:10 and she'll bring them to the surface to
3:13 meet the rest of the clan
3:15 over the next three months the young
3:17 badgers start joining the adults on
3:20 foraging trips and by five months of age
3:22 they are fully independent
3:24 in the september or october of their
3:27 first year some young badgers especially
3:29 young males move away from their
3:30 mother's clan and either join a
3:34 different clan or start a brand new set
3:35 this happens more in areas where there
3:38 are not many badges about but in places
3:39 where there are several badger sets near
3:41 one another the youngsters are more
3:44 likely to stay with their original
3:47 clan although badgers are active
3:48 throughout the year during the winter
3:50 they'll often remain underground
3:52 sleeping for long periods of time and
3:54 relying on their built up fat stores for energy
3:55 energy
3:57 they're very social within their clan
3:58 and communicate with each other through
4:00 a series of grunts squirrels and whistles
4:10 it wouldn't be right to make a video
4:12 about badgers without mentioning a
4:14 controversial cull that has been going
4:18 on across the uk over recent years
4:19 the colour is trying to reduce the
4:22 spread of bovine tb to cattle but
4:24 unfortunately most studies show that it
4:26 isn't working and by culling some
4:28 members of a clan the badgers may
4:30 actually travel further and increase the
4:37 despite the coal one quarter of the
4:39 world's badgers are in the uk with
4:41 between three and five hundred thousand
4:43 of them living here
4:45 european badges are also found across
4:47 most of mainland europe and into some
4:50 parts of the middle east
4:52 while badgers have an average life
4:54 expectancy of five to eight years but
4:56 have been known to live beyond 15 years
4:58 in the world and a captive badger
5:04 well there we go if you learned
5:05 something new check out this british
5:07 wildlife video and if you enjoyed that
5:08 subscribe for more thanks for watching
