O.L.I To write a short description about badgers.

Where are badgers found? Badgers can be found in most parts of Ireland. In particular in the Wicklow mountains. A badger’s habitat is usually woodland, farmland, hedgegroves, coastal cliffs & some gardens.

What a badger looks like Badgers can live up to the age of 15 years. Their bodies are usually about 76cm long and their tails can measure 15cm. Female badgers are usually smaller than this. Badgers have a heavy grey body with a short tail, a distinctive black and white head and white tipped ears.

Diet Badgers are omnivores - they eat meat and plants. Earthworms are their main food as well as beetles, slugs, frogs, young rabbits & mice, fruit and bluebell bulbs.

Where do they live? Badgers are one of the most popular and well-known Irish mammals. Badgers live in large burrow systems called setts.

Setts A sett is usually dug in sloping ground in a wood. Some setts have been used for over 100 years by generations of badgers and may have more than 40 entrances. The underground tunnels may be up to 30m long. Tunnels are on different levels, about 100cm from the surface. At the end of a tunnel is a chamber, used for sleeping or breeding.

Males and females A badger community normally consists of several adult boars (males) and sows (females) together with one or two litters of cubs - up to 15 animals in total.

Daily Life Badgers are nocturnal and emerge from their setts soon after dusk, sniffing the air for danger before going about their activities. They are very clean animals and always deposit their droppings in shallow pits some distance from the sett.

Scratching trees Near the sett there is usually a "scratching tree", engraved with sets of claw marks. Sharpening claws keep them in good condition for digging.

Winter During the autumn, badgers eat as much as they can, laying down a lot of fat under the skin. This helps them to survive the winter. They do not hibernate but spend the coldest weather sleeping in their setts, living mainly off their fat.