What is it? #2 revealed

photo: Kate Pressland

On Friday we set you the challenge of working out who left the footprints in the picture. They were found on Weston Moor, one of Avon Wildlife Trust's nature reserves and belong to a European badger (meles meles).

Badgers like to make setts in or near woodlands but often feed over nearby grasslands. Badgers are omnivores and eat a wide range of food including nuts, berries, mice, rats, hedgehogs, frogs and snails. Their favourite food is earthworms and they can eat up to 200 in one day!

They are brilliant diggers and have amazingly strong front paws. They can even dig faster than a man with a spade, making them the fastest digging animal on earth.

Badgers live in family groups, in underground in homes called setts. Some setts have been used for over 100 years by many generations of badgers. 

They tend to mark their territory with latrines (loos) and by rubbing their bottom on a tree or stone to leave their scent. Each badger has a slightly different musky smell which is how they recognise each other.Have you ever noticed that familiar smell of a parent or member of your family? Well, it's like for badgers all the time when they see their friends.

photo: Darin Smith