The sett of the badger pair (Meles meles) is a bit of a hike away. It’s about 8km on foot across a sprawling ridge with fields on top. I often encounter deer up on those fields, and it was no different this time around.
The deer who live up there are all very shy and weary of people, so I can only film them from afar. Try to get a bit closer, and they run for DEER life (hehe).
Having arrived at the badger pair’s sett, I instantly noticed the things were different. I’ve been going there for months but never seen the area disturbed like that. There was even a small hole dug up next to the main entrance and in it, there was vomit and/or feces.
The snow and leaf cover in the immediate surroundings of the entrance were also disturbed, and the entrance itself looked different. Previously, in order to enter or exit the sett, the badgers had to crawl through a small space under a root growing across the entrance. Now the small space was no longer small. More excavation has been done to it and I had no idea why.
Upon reviewing the trail camera footage at home, it looked to me as though an intruder, a male badger (called a “boar”) encroached upon the badger pair’s territory and gave out the low pitch growl. Seemingly feeling a female badger (called a “sow”) inside, he challenged the resident male and demanded the female breeds with him.
The less experienced, younger resident boar didn’t have what it takes to challenge the larger boar and the sow, being a female, didn’t make too big of a deal about cheating on her partner with a bigger Chad. But she did play hard to get for a bit.
This is the first time I have seen badgers mating like that, and decided to relocate my floating camera to the area in order to also capture the activity of the badgers outside the entrance. I’m sure the mating is not over yet.
00:00 Disclaimer
00:11 Pair of Roe Deer (Capreolus Capreolus) on the field
01:06 Deer take off and run
01:24 Deer’s curiosity takes over
01:39 Deer jumps
01:54 Reintroduction of the badger pair sett and my trail camera
02:36 Strange activity observed at the sett of badger pair
03:21 Small hole with excrement
04:45 Disturbed snow and leaf cover
05:59 Pondering the mating activity
06:14 Different angle view of disturbed ground
07:17 Intruding badger boar
08:25 Resident boar is too inexperienced to challenge the intruder
08:43 Badger sow exits the sett
09:20 Badger pair scurry back in the sett
09:33 Intruding boar grabs the sow by the neck
10:02 Intruding badger excavates ground to enlarge the entrance
10:33 Back to back attempt at mating
11:45 Female badger mounted
12:04 Badger growl
12:24 Closeup of badger fangs
12:35 Return into the sett
Keep rocking :o)
Mark
https://www.nophoneman.com/
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