The European badger, Meles meles, must be one of our most easily identified species. The species is most associated with woodland and farmland in the countryside, but there are also populations in Greater London. The species has been in the press a great deal lately, but what does the badger mean to GiGL?
The badger is a highly social mammal, living in family setts and foraging within a defined territory for earthworms and other omnivorous foods. They don’t hibernate in the winter, but during the cold weather will spend larger amounts of time underground in their setts. Its characteristic black and white striped appearance is known to most people, but few ever see a badger due to their nocturnal habits. This makes casual records more scarce (if you do see one, please let us know) but professional surveys can provide us with evidence of their whereabouts.
GiGL holds hundreds of records for badgers from the ’80s to today and these records are interesting not only for our partners’ understanding local ecology but because badgers are highly protected under UK law. Badgers are therefore flagged within GiGL’s ‘protected and designated’ status information as being listed under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. They are also listed in our Accessing Data Policy so records are treated differently. Due to an unfortunate history of badger baiting, locations of badger setts and badger sightings are kept ‘confidential’. This means we will not provide the actual locations to non-partners, and partners are made aware in the data of their confidential nature.
The threat of persecution means badgers are one of the range of specific species that GiGL will be able to assist the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit to investigate and protect by providing baseline data. The Unit aims to protect threatened species by upholding the laws designed to protect them. Many species in the UK are protected by law, to varying degrees. Read more about this and our work with the Wildlife Crime Unit in our upcoming winter edition of the GiGLer newsletter to be advertised here soon! To subscribe, fill in your details at the bottom of the home page.
December 2013
Photo: Badger in London (c) Phil Thomas