What does a badger eat in winter? Badger or common badger. See what "Badger" is in other dictionaries

The badger is one of the representatives of the mustelid family. He is the largest representative in his family. Badger weight in summer period is 20-24 kg, before hibernation its weight can increase to 34 kg. The badger reaches a length of 90 cm. The body is strong and wedge-shaped. The badger's coat is thick and long, with an additional undercoat. The head is round in shape with a pointed muzzle at the end and a short, almost invisible neck. The ears are small and rounded at the end. The limbs are short and massive with long claws on the toes that are excellent for digging. The badger also has a tail, its length is 20-24 centimeters. The body color is brownish-gray with a silvery tint. The badger's muzzle is white with two black stripes running along the eye line from the nose to the ears. The tips of the ears are white.

The most developed senses of a badger are smell and hearing. Badgers see poorly both far and close.

Lifestyle

Badgers live in families or alone. It all depends on population density. If the population in one area is very large, badgers live in small family groups. Such groups have a main burrow, a head of the family (mostly the oldest male of the group) and a dominant female. The total area of ​​the family plot can range from 35 to 400 hectares.

On the borders of their towns, badgers leave marks with a characteristic musky odor, which is the same for all family members. With the help of this smell, badgers of this family recognize each other. They leave their excrement as boundaries for strangers.

In conditions where the population density is low, badgers lead a solitary lifestyle without identifying a main burrow.

Where does the badger live?

The badger lives throughout almost the entire territory of Europe except Finland and the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. In addition to Europe, another type of badger is found in Asia (Asian badger). There is also another species that is distributed throughout the territory North America- American badger.

Although the badger's habitat is quite wide, meeting one in the forest is a great success. This is due to the fact that the badger leads night look life, this is a very cautious animal that tries to avoid any danger by hiding in its holes.

In forests, the badger prefers to settle in places where there is a lot of grass and bushes. To build its dwellings, it uses places with the most convenient soil for digging holes (edges, slopes and beams).

What does a badger eat?

The badger is an omnivorous animal. Its diet depends on the time of year. Goes hunting at night. In summer it eats mainly rodents, lizards, frogs, insects and their larvae, earthworms, slugs, mollusks, small birds, eggs. Also at this time of year he eats berries, grass, mushrooms, nuts, fruits, and plant bulbs. In autumn, it often feeds in agricultural fields, eating up crops, legumes, corn and other cultivated plants.

Research on the badger in Ukraine has shown that its diet consists of more than 49 plant species and 54 animal species. But in some countries, for example, England, the main food for badgers is earthworms, other types of feed are of secondary importance.

Badger's home

Badgers live in burrows that they dig themselves. A badger's burrow consists of several long tunnels, entrance holes and nesting chambers. Sometimes the length of the tunnels in one burrow reaches 5-10 meters, and the number of passages into the dwelling can number up to 50 holes. As a rule, badgers have 2 or 3 nesting chambers. He carefully monitors each chamber, constantly changing the bedding. Badgers arrange their nesting chambers so that neither rain nor groundwater can seep into them.

Badgers spend most of their lives in their homes.

How does a badger winter?

Almost all summer and half of autumn the badger prepares for hibernation, storing additional fat during this period to survive the winter. This is the only representative in its family that sleeps in winter. The remaining mustelids are active all year round.

With the arrival of November at the beginning of December badger hibernates. In some more northern areas, it sleeps already in mid-October or early November.

Sometimes in winter badgers can wake up and come out of their holes. This happens most often during periods of winter thaw.

In countries with more warm climate Badgers do not sleep in winter; they lead an active lifestyle there all year round.

Badger breeding

The mating season for the common badger lasts from February to September. Fertilized females bear offspring only the next year after mating. Pregnancy can last from 270 to 450 days, it all depends on when mating occurred. Females bring offspring in the southern part of Europe at the end of December at the beginning of April, in the northern part - in March-April.

Usually 2-3 babies are born in one litter. Maximum quantity The number of babies a female can bring is 6. Badgers are born deaf and blind. They begin to hear within a month, and open their eyes only at five weeks of age.

For newborn babies, the first year of life is one of the most dangerous and difficult; at this time, badger cubs are most vulnerable.

Babies learn to get food at the age of 3-3.5 months. With the transition to independent feeding, badger cubs quickly gain weight and by the fall they catch up with their parents in size.

Lifespan of a badger V wildlife on average is 5-6 years. Long-livers are considered to be individuals who have lived up to 10-12 years. Badgers can live longer in captivity. The oldest long-lived badger lived for 16 years.

Badger and man

The badger does not pose a direct threat to humans. But at the same time, he suffers from a dangerous disease for humans - rabies. Previously, it was believed that the badger also carries tuberculosis of the large cattle, but recent studies have confirmed that the badger is not a carrier of bovine tuberculosis.

Due to the fact that the badger can carry these diseases, they continue to actively destroy it. To prevent hunting of badgers, in Europe they are vaccinated under natural conditions. In addition to exterminating the badger as a carrier of diseases, it is hunted in Russia and Ukraine in order to use its fat in alternative medicine.

In addition to the above reasons for extermination, the badger is destroyed as a pest of crops. Although it brings much more benefit to a person than harm. Its diet contains a large number of agricultural pests.

As a result of such mass extermination, the badger became endangered and was listed in the Red Book International Union nature conservation.

This animal is widespread, but it is not so easy to see. Again, almost every person knows what a badger looks like. Let's take a closer look at this beast. Belonging to the mustelidae family, it has a number of peculiar habits.

Appearance

The body length ranges from 60 to 90 centimeters, the tail length 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 body, tapering towards the shoulders, is connected through a short neck to an elongated head, extended towards the nose. Thus, the body, neck and head of the animal form a wedge. The legs are short and powerful. The claws on the front paws are longer than on the hind paws. This is clearly demonstrated by badger tracks.

The animal's fur consists of long awns and thick undercoat. The silver-gray color of the back and sides gradually gives way to almost black on the belly and paws. There are two wide black stripes on the muzzle, which can start from the very nose and cover the eyes and ears. The rounded tips of the ears are painted white.

The weight of the animal depends on the time of year: after waking up - up to 15 kg, before hibernation - up to 25 kg.

Habitats

Its habitat covers almost all of Europe. Behind Ural mountains The beast can be found almost throughout the entire territory of Russia (except for the extreme northern and arid regions). Also common in China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Thus, according to their 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 deep taiga forests. The badger's home is located in places where there is a lot of grass and bushes, and the soil does not freeze or flood. 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 is nocturnal, so its vision is poorly developed, but its hearing and sense of smell are very good. During the day he mostly sleeps for night hunting.

The animal spends most of its life in a hole, which it, being able to dig excellently, builds, repairs and renews itself. These animals can live alone or in families.

In its simplest form, 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 a bedding of dry grass and leaves.

Often, badger holes 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 place its nesting chambers under the aquifer, so that these chambers are always dry and warm. The animal regularly replaces the old bedding from the nesting chambers with fresh one.

An abandoned badger hole can become a home for a fox or raccoon dog.

It is also interesting that the animal digs special holes for its excrement.

Wintering

Having not only accumulated a sufficient amount of fat, but also filled its pantries with the necessary supplies, the animal goes into hibernation with the onset of winter. No other representative of this family winters like this. Before lying down, he covers all the entrances to the hole with leaves. However, a badger in winter does not sleep like a bear, but lightly.

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 overwinters in a separate nesting chamber. As soon as the snow begins to melt in the 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 make it possible to clearly indicate what the badger eats.

His menu includes both plant and animal food, but not carrion, which he will not touch even in difficult times of hunger.

Badgers feed on insects, amphibians and reptiles: often lizards, rarely snakes. As soon as the time comes for berries, mushrooms and nuts, he willingly eats them. A badger eats no more than half a kilogram of food per day.

Reproduction

The common badger is a monogamous animal. The formed couple remains for the entire time until one of the partners dies. The badger rut begins in spring and ends in summer.

The following spring, the female gives birth to 3-5 cubs, which are blind and absolutely helpless. Pregnancy lasts from 9 to 12 months. For the first three months of life, the only food for badger cubs is mother's milk. Then the parents teach them to hunt, and the children switch to regular food.

Under natural conditions, a badger lives from 10 to 12 years.

Economic importance

The badger, destroying many pests such as chafer larvae, mole crickets, and rodents, brings great benefits to the forest and agriculture. However, 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. The only value for humans is badger fat, used in folk medicine. This animal is hunted mainly with the help of dogs.

Thanks to beneficial properties badger fat, badger breeding 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

You will learn how to find a badger hole in the forest from our video.

One of the most common animals in our country is the European badger. This small animal is very interesting image life, quite unpretentious and omnivorous. It is completely safe and non-aggressive, but last years its population is greatly reduced. This is due to the destruction of badgers because of their fur or healthy fat. These animals need to be studied, protected and measures taken to increase their numbers. After all, the European badger brings invaluable benefits to the forest biocenosis and helps in the destruction of pests of agricultural plants.

Appearance of a badger

This is the largest animal. Its body length reaches a meter, and its shape is very unique. This animal is massive and squat. This is what a badger looks like (photo below).

Its sharp, elongated muzzle turns into a short neck, and its body gradually widens towards the back. The head is wedge-shaped, with a pointed, elongated nose and small round ears. The badger's paws are short and massive, with a bare plantar surface. They end in sharp and very strong claws, perfectly suited for digging holes, and also capable of severely and painfully injuring someone who angers the badger. But in general this animal is not at all aggressive; it moves slowly, sometimes in leaps. The coloring of the European badger is very characteristic: two black stripes start almost from the nose and pass through the eyes to the neck, gradually disappearing on the back; His paws, belly and chest are also dark, almost black. The badger's fur is light gray, hard and long, but with a soft undercoat. The animal's tail is short and quite fluffy.

Where is it found?

The European badger is quite undemanding about its habitat. It can be found everywhere in Europe. They especially love deciduous and steppe areas and any non-flooded places where they can make burrows. The only thing badgers do not tolerate is cold, so they do not settle in soils that freeze in winter.

These animals are also not found in deserts and waterless, dry steppes. The presence of water is mandatory for them, and it must be possible to approach it secretly. But the European badger does not avoid the proximity of human habitation - as long as it is possible to build a hole in a little-visited place. These animals love to settle on the slopes of ravines and ravines, on the high banks of rivers and lakes. They prefer places where forest thickets alternate with meadows and wastelands. If there is a lot of food around, then badgers can make holes next to each other. This animal rarely moves more than 500 meters from its home.

What does a badger eat?

This animal is not a predator. In general, the badger is omnivorous, but very often it chooses one type of food and eats only that. This mainly depends on where the animal lives. So, what does a badger eat:

• Often the basis of its diet is insects, mainly large beetles, but sometimes the animal feasts on wasps.
• The badger loves earthworms, larvae, snails, slugs and fish.
• Sometimes these animals catch voles, small birds, lizards or frogs.
• But most of all, badgers love plant foods: stems and leaves, rhizomes, berries, acacia pods, acorns, fruits, corn, oats and much more.

Even in the hungriest time, this animal will never eat carrion and the remains of predators’ feasts. If he doesn’t have enough food, he simply goes to another place and makes a new hole.

Badger lifestyle

This is a very interesting animal. Him amazing behavior, often very different from the habits of other animals.

1. The badger leads a semi-underground life. It emerges from its burrow only at night, and in winter it often hibernates for several months. That's why to an ordinary person It is almost impossible to find out where a badger lives. It is also very difficult to take a photo of him, because he likes to go out on dark, moonless nights, but even then he does not move far from the hole.
2. When moving, the badger makes too much noise: it sniffles, loudly rustles leaves and picks at the ground.
3. This animal moves rather slowly and heavily. When walking, he lowers his head low. He rarely runs, moving mostly by walking or jumping.
4. The European badger is a very clean animal. You won’t find any leftover food or other debris near his home. He even digs special “latrines” in a secluded place not far from the hole. And he changes the bedding in his nest twice a year.
5. These animals have very poor vision: they only notice moving objects. Their hearing is no sharper than that of humans. The badger navigates only with the help of its sense of smell, which is quite well developed.
6. The voice of this animal resembles a grunt; it can also grumble, and when very frightened, it can squeal.
7. - about 15 years.

badger hole

This animal builds its home itself. In addition, it is constantly expanding and repairing it. A new burrow has from two to five exits. After a few years, the number of holes can reach 40 or more.

There are also ventilation holes in the hole. The badger's underground dwelling lies at a depth of at least a meter and is complex system galleries, turns, dead ends, sidings and extensions. They are often located in several tiers and extend to a depth of more than five meters. Usually there are a couple of nesting chambers, often badgers place them under an aquifer, which protects against seepage of groundwater. The length of the passages sometimes reaches 80 meters. If nothing bothers the animals and there is enough food, then several generations can live in one hole - it is passed on by inheritance. Young badgers complete their homes and add new passages. Therefore, an old “badger” can occupy an area of ​​more than a hectare.

Relationships with other animals

Badgers are not at all aggressive animals. They are so tolerant of each other that several families can live in one home. Natural enemies badgers do not, only humans are dangerous to them. But young animals can be hunted by wolves and bears. And adult animals are very careful and prefer to move away and hide in a hole, although even large predator It's hard to deal with such an opponent.

If he gets angry, he squeals loudly and bites, and can also seriously injure the offender with his claws. Sometimes other animals move into the badger's hole: raccoons, ferrets, martens or foxes. As long as they do not bother the owner, he tolerates them, he just fences himself off. But the badger is a very clean animal, so quite often he drives foxes out of his home.

What does he do in winter

Badger hibernation is similar to bear hibernation. They do not sleep in winter only where there is no frost. But most often, badgers eat fat in the fall, almost doubling in weight, and repair the hole, preparing it for hibernation. They insulate the nest by carrying moss and dry leaves there. The badger throws away the old bedding, as it is very clean. These animals also store food, putting it in special storerooms in their burrows. The roots and grains of plants will be very useful to the badger when he wakes up hungry in the spring. They stop appearing on the surface after the onset of frost and snowfall, and in the spring they emerge with the beginning of snow melting. Before hibernation, this animal clogs all the holes in its burrow with earth and dry leaves.

Badger breeding

These animals mate for several years, often even for life. Their rut takes place in the spring or summer. The female's pregnancy lasts from 9 to 12 months, and 2-3 badgers are born between December and April.

In the first month they are blind and completely helpless. Only after three months of age do the cubs begin to leave the burrow and receive food other than mother's milk. Some young badgers leave the family in the fall, create a pair and dig their own hole, but some remain and hibernate with their parents.

The badger leads a very interesting lifestyle. This animal is still maintaining its numbers, and it is believed that nothing threatens its population. But many of them are destroyed because of badger fur, which is used to make tassels and hats. Its healing fat is also valuable, curing tuberculosis and various skin diseases. Animals are dying because of economic activity humans, the destruction of burrows and the emergence large quantity expensive

Appearance.

With its clumsy, massive, baggy body, the badger differs sharply from other mustelids found in our region and having a thin, graceful body. The small head with a narrow and long muzzle is similar to that of a dog, the ears and eyes are small, the tail is relatively short and bushy. The badger, being an omnivorous animal, has a tooth structure more similar to that of an omnivore, but quite different from what we see in most predators: the crowns of the molars, not excluding the carnivorous one, are wide, with blunt tubercles adapted to rubbing plant food. However, the fangs are highly developed. The first premolar tooth in the upper jaw of a badger almost always falls out.

The color of the back and sides of the body is gray with an admixture of black. The head is white with two rather wide black stripes that start in front of the eyes and go through the eyes and ears, widening and behind the ears gradually turning into the gray coloration of the sides of the body. The throat, chest, belly and legs are black, the tail is grayish-white.

The badger's fur is quite coarse, especially in summer, when it is less common than in winter, has a darker color and is almost completely devoid of underfur.

The body length of an old badger without a tail is on average about 80 cm, the tail is about 20 cm. The weight of an old badger, fattened by autumn, is on average about 20 kg and, as a rarity, badgers weighing over 37 kg are found.

Distribution and habitats

The badger is distributed throughout Europe (excluding the north of Scandinavia, the basins of the Pechora and Don rivers): in the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Front, Middle and Central Asia, throughout southern Siberia.

The habitats of the badger in our region are forests, as well as copses and forested ravines among fields. In the forest, the badger chooses dry, ravine places located near bodies of water, which it needs for watering. Quite often it settles in ravines at the edge of the forest.

Of all the mustelids, the badger shows the greatest sapper inclinations. IN open areas it settles along gullies, everywhere preferring ravines and hills with slopes made of soft soil, since here it is easier for it to dig holes.

The badger digs its own holes. These burrows vary in length, but, as a rule, the older the burrow, the longer it is and the more burrows it has, since the badger spends his entire life working to expand his underground home. Otnorkov in badger holes Ah, it can be from 1-2 to 20 or even more. Among the horns there are those that have a special function. These include narrow ventilation holes, usually going obliquely upward and opening at the top of a slope or hillock. There are indications of the presence of special burrows that serve as a latrine for the badger, where this very clean animal leaves and buries its excrement. The living chamber in the burrow is usually quite extensive - up to 1 m in height and up to 1.5 m in diameter, quite significantly removed from the entrance hole (often up to 10 m) and lies at a depth of 1 to 5 m from the surface of the earth. The walls and bottom of the den are lined with dry and clean litter of leaves, moss and grass. Sometimes several badgers settle nearby, forming a real colony.

By way of life, the badger is a nocturnal animal. He spends the day in a hole and goes hunting at dusk, returning only in the morning. During the night, the badger is busy getting food and for this purpose it walks around a fairly large area, at times moving significantly away from the hole.

Nutrition

The badger, as stated, is omnivorous. Its food is very varied: it eats earthworms, slugs and snails, different insects and their larvae, very willingly eats frogs, lizards, snakes and even poisonous snakes(possessing, like the ferret, partial immunity to their bites), chicks and eggs of various birds, as well as various small mammals. By exterminating mouse-like rodents, as well as insects, the badger brings certain benefits.

The plant part of the badger's food is still poorly studied. It eats quite a lot of edible roots, mushrooms, berries, wild fruits, acorns, nuts and even eats some grains. Sometimes badgers that settle near human habitation acquire the habit of carrying poultry.

Reproduction

The time of estrus in badgers has not yet been established with complete certainty, as well as the gestation period. The only established fact is that estrus occurs from April to July. The gestation period is determined to be approximately 340-350 days. It is assumed that the egg in the uterus goes through a resting stage after fertilization and begins to develop around the first half of December.

Badgers will be born in the hole in March - April. The number of young in a litter is from 2 to 6, most often 4. They are born blind and gain sight on approximately the 30th day of life. They begin to emerge from the burrow in June. Until autumn, the young stay with their mother, and in the fall they disperse and dig their own holes.

Molting and hibernation

A badger's molt is slow. It begins in the spring and ends completely by the end September - early October, when winter fur reaches almost its full development.

From the end of summer, the badger begins to eat up, and fat deposition occurs, which reaches its maximum by mid-autumn, i.e., by the time of hibernation. At this time, this clumsy beast literally turns into a bag of lard. The badger spends the winter hibernating. Before lying down in it, a neat badger cleans its hole and replaces the old bedding in the den with a new one. Before hibernating, it clogs the holes of the burrows with earth. The badger usually does not make reserves for the winter, and if it does, it is very small, which it obviously needs only for the first days after the final departure to the hole, until it completely falls asleep. The badger sometimes begins to wake up and leave the hole at warm days February and early March, but these exits are short-lived. The badger finally wakes up and begins to regularly leave the hole in late March - early April.

By its nature, the badger is a rather phlegmatic and peace-loving animal. He lives peacefully in close proximity to his own kind. He only does not tolerate the proximity of an unclean and strongly odorous woman, who often drives the badger out of his own hole, spreading the pungent odor inherent in her urine.

Being a peace-loving animal, the badger is not at all distinguished by cowardice. His self-defense instinct is very developed. He fiercely defends himself against dogs attacking him, inflicting severe wounds on them with his claws and teeth, and sometimes even dares to attack the person pursuing him, trying to bite his legs, for which he apparently received his popular name “ulcer.”

The badger is tamed quite well and, if you start taming with early age, then the badgers even show affection for their owner.

Economic importance

Badgers are hunted for their skin and fat. The skin is used to make cheap types of fur, and the hair is used to make brushes. Badger fat is quite highly valued - various lubricants are prepared from it, and in some places it is used as a home remedy for the treatment of wounds.

Signs of “permanent” or “wintering” badger burrows (“towns”, “burrows”): they necessarily have several exits (“burrows”); crowded approach paths (at least one very clearly visible); it is regularly cleaned, old litter from the “cauldron” and crumbled soil from passages are raked out; have a gutter in front of the main entrance (sometimes quite high - in old, perennial ones); in the fall, before the badger lies down for the winter, nearby there are areas of “mown” grass or piles of dry leaves, traces of dragging; in the spring, next to the entrance, there are koloboks or rolls of grass - the remains of “plugs” (“plugs”), exactly the same ones can be seen near the holes in late autumn, 1-3 days before the badger lies down; “toilet” - (a hole in the ground) at a distance of 20-75 meters from the town.

Signs of “temporary” burrows (“days”): the presence of a “toilet” is the only reliable sign of the presence of a temporary burrow, which is why it is much more difficult to find them.

The badger never makes a toilet anywhere, but only near the burrows, most often next to the path in the direction of the main “hikes” towards feeding (cereal fields, wet places, etc.). He leads a sedentary lifestyle and 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 (deforestation to zero, burning, waterlogging or flooding, etc.).

But even in these cases, he regularly checks his former “lands” and burrows and returns if the situation has improved. Young animals of the next generations may also move in there. With strong seasonal pressure from people and livestock (mushroom pickers, 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 ground water, frequent fluctuations of water in reservoirs, “heavy” soil, etc.).

They often move from one temporary burrow to another (that’s why there are more toilets than badgers) and return to their “native” burrow only immediately before they go to bed. More than once I observed that, even after starting to clean the hole and prepare fresh bedding, the badger went to the makeshift hut for the day: it seemed like he was working at night, but the dogs showed that it was empty. And so on until the coldest weather.

If a badger’s toilet with fresh “contents” is found, but there is no town (burrow) nearby, then you need to look for a den (temporary burrow). Such burrows are difficult to find: they do not have distinct paths, large outbursts of soil at the entrance, noticeable from afar, and are often so overgrown with grass and undergrowth that the entrance can only be seen when squatting. But they are very promising in terms of hunting.

It is better to start your 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 select and inspect the most likely places within a radius of 50-75 meters: the slopes of hillocks, artificial hills, under large trees with a crown reaching to the ground, dense thickets near big trees among small forests, ravines, etc.

On open places The paths to the hole are clearly visible in the morning, while the dew lingers, and especially if there is frost. Well, the last option is to move in a spiral, starting from the toilet, and 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 holds the smell well, and the shallow depth of the temporary huts allows you to smell the animal in the hole.

The best time to search for new and check old holes is early spring When the snow has already melted, the holes are cleaned by the animal, throwing out the “plugs” and old nesting litter. The grass has not yet grown, and holes, and fresh heaps of earth and garbage are clearly visible from afar.

It is good to combine searching for holes with collecting mushrooms - both badger feeding places and mushrooms are most often found in places with high humidity, which is apparently associated with more abundant and succulent vegetation here and, consequently, with a larger number of “roots” and “worm bugs”.

Whenever I see a badger digging, I always check all suitable places nearby for the presence of holes. Often the holes are in dense thickets of bird cherry, I don’t know the reason, but the badger very willingly eats its fallen berries, and in early autumn the pits of the toilets are filled with seeds.

The terrain where badgers live is very diverse: from swampy lowlands with oxbow lakes and streams to fairly high hills, from taiga to forest-steppe. Wintering burrows are found on slopes (multi-level, more than 3 meters deep), and on flat areas, and on the slopes of ravines, and even on islands and next to oxbow lakes (with a depth of no more than a meter!

I often meet in different sources statements about the badger’s attachment to bodies of water, even about paths to watering places, where it supposedly needs to be guarded or traps set. In our area, I don’t notice any “connection” of badger burrows to bodies of water; moreover, 25-30 percent of the burrows do not have bodies of water close to them at all. I’m not even talking about “paths to a watering hole” - I’ve never seen one!
I don’t connect the badger’s settlement with grain fields; on the contrary, many fields are abandoned and overgrown with weeds, but there are no fewer badgers there.

But the emergence of more and more new farms involved in livestock farming 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 deserted.

Just like the roe deer, hares, partridges, and black grouse disappeared, and only foxes remained. I attribute this, on the one hand, to the competition of freely roaming sheep and pigs and, on the other, to to a greater extent, with loose dogs. There is no point in looking for a badger here.

When a badger hibernates. The time a badger goes into hibernation depends only on the weather, and the main criterion is the inability to feed. Snow may fall and melt repeatedly (this most often happens), but until the onset of stable cold weather, until the surface of the soil freezes so much that it stops thawing during the day, the animal does not lie down.

During the first early frosts (“morning hours”) it often feeds during the day—a convenient time for hunting with dogs. It only does not feed in rainy weather - it does not like dampness, but on the next clear night it leaves earlier and returns later. By the time it goes into hibernation, its weight more than doubles!

Interestingly, the badger always very accurately anticipates the weather “forecast” and prepares in advance. In 1-3 weeks, it cleans the nesting chamber (cauldron) and passages - rakes out excess soil. Then, always in dry weather, he “mows” and drags armfuls of grass, dry leaves or moss (less often) to the hole for bedding in the cauldron. Paths of trampled grass towards the burrows are clearly visible during this period. Then, just before laying down, 2-5 days in advance he brings in “koloboks” or “rolls” (often made of grass) to plug the exits from the wintering camp.