14 November 2013

All of the food was eaten last night, both from the dishes (which have planks weighed down with rocks on them--to ensure rats don't get any) and from under a plank that gets moved to a new location every day.

The piece of wood over the original excavation (probably a fox earth) was lifted and tilted to one side of the corrugated pipe on which it had rested for the last two weeks. The idea being to make the sett natural and no more conspicuous than it needs to be and to have all this done and the badgers used to the change before the fence is removed. They didn't seem to mind the change too much, but as usual one was braver than the other when it came to venturing out. When both had been out for a while they played as usual.

Some of the video clips were taken from little more than arm's length. The badgers don't react visibly to the infrared light used to illuminate them when the recordings are made.

They are very alert to smells however, and have on occasion stood sniffing the wind for minutes at a time (the only other animals in the woods that we know of are passing foxes, cats as well as shrews, mice, rats and occasional squirrels and hedgehogs).