Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre

Look out for Badgers!

Badger image with NBRC, Wildlife Trust BCN and Badger Group logos

We need your help to find Badgers!

NBRC are hosting the Northamptonshire Badger Group survey.

This group holds records of badger activity across the county, provides advice and organises rescue and rehabilitation.  Your help is needed to increase and update their records.  As a small community group, they rely on volunteers and members of the public to report badger information.  Records of badger activity in the southern half of the county are particlularly needed.

For more information about how you can help and submit your records, please visit our Look out for Badgers survey page.

 

Why we need your help:

The records you submit to the record centre in this collaborative survey will be shared with the Northamptonshire Badger Group. This group hold records of badger activity across the county, provides advice, and organises rescue and rehabilitation.  Your help is needed to increase and update their records. As a small community group, they rely on volunteers and members of the public to report badger information.  Records of badger activity in the southern half of the county are particularly needed.

As part of the scientific record all parts of submitted records will be stored securely and shared with this group, including recorder names. The submission of your record will default on this website to 10km, this blurs the exact location seen on the website in order that it cannot be accessed and misused. This information will be stored securely at the resolution supplied and be managed by both by the NBRC and by the Northamptonshire Badger Group. Please see our privacy policy for details on how we collect and use information submitted to the NBRC.

The protection of badgers Act 1992 legally protects them and their setts.  Despite this, land development, sett blocking and roads continue to threaten the species.  Therefore, it is so important that we have accurate, up to date sightings and badger activity records in order to understand the full picture of activity across the county.  This data can be used by NBRC partners in responsible decision making for the conservation of Northamptonshire’s protected and notable species, and can help the Northamptonshire Badger Group in advocacy and local protection of the species.

 

How you can help:

If you see any badger signs including a dead badger on the road (from a road traffic accident), a badger sett, a latrine (badger toilet pit) or a footprint, you can report it here using the submission form below to add it to our records.

 

Badger Activity Clues:

BADGER:  One feature that immediately distinguishes the badger is its colouration, particularly on its face. The black and white striped head of the badger is distinctive. As an adult they can be up to 1m long. In making your record, tell us how many badgers you have seen, and if known whether they are adults or cubs. Training is advised to correctly identify the sex of a badger, if uncertain do not include this in the record.

LATRINE:  Badgers dig a small pit to defecate in.  They use this pit multiple times and do not cover it over with soil like a cat generally would.  You can find one latrine or multiple latrines together. If you can see obvious content this can be additionally useful, along with how fresh the deposit is.

SETT:  Most badger tunnels have a distinctive shape, being wider than they are tall, with a flattened base. The tunnels excavated by badgers are around 30cm in diameter, certainly no smaller than 25cm in diameter.  Sett entrances normally have a spoil heap which is the soil that has been excavated by the badger.  The spoil often contains old bedding (grass, ferns etc) and can have hairs in it also.

FOOTPRINT:  A badgers footprint is very distinctive, it consists of a broad kidney shaped pad, with 5 toes lined up in front, the front feet are larger and the claws longer. Often the fifth toe (the inner toe), which is slightly smaller and set further back, does not show up, and the print may have only four toe marks. The fact that toes are arranged in a line clearly identifies the print as badger: dogs, foxes and cats have four-toed prints, but their toes are arranged in an arc around an oval or three lobed pads. A scratch mark is also distinctive as the marks are parallel.

 

 

Before submitting your records, please read the NBRC Privacy Policy and NBRC's record submission Terms and Conditions.

If this is your first record submission, please read our quick guide to Using the NBRC Website to Submit Biological Records.

If you would like to submit more than one sighting or plan to submit sightings on a regular basis, please create an account before you submit your sightings.  You will then be able to view, edit and download all your submitted records.

Please note that submitted records don't appear on the My Records and All Records pages straight away.  We would advise that you check these pages the following day.

 

Personal Details
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Please provide your first name

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Please provide your surname

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Please provide your email address. This will only be used to contact you if we require further information to verify the record.

You are submitting a record of Meles meles
 

Enter the recorder's name, if different

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What signs did you see that indicated presence?

 

How certain of this identification are you?

 

If anyone helped with the identification please enter their name here

Please add any additional information you feel would be useful. This could include; hair seen, scratch marks, worn pathways, age (adult/juvenile), number seen, activity of mammal when seen etc.

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Enter the date in dd/mm/yyyy format or select the date of the record.

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Please provide the location name. This could be the name of a village, town, parish, nature reserve, wood etc. Do not enter a postal address as the information you provide will be visible to others.

Further details about where the sighting was within the main location, e.g. a road name, footpath, a compartment of a wood, or area of a nature reserve.

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NB: All badger records will be blurred to 10km and the original grid reference supplied/location will not be visible to other users. Please supply a six figure grid reference as a minimum

Or simply click on your rough position on the map.