Anyone else ever seen a live badger?

[lazybloke]

Seen many on woodland roads on the North Downs in Surrey, plus occasionally have one in my front garden.
A friend works at a sanctuary, and through her I've had an opportunity to bottle-feed a baby badger. The cuuuuutest!!!!!!

 

[katiewlx]

yes, on the whole more dead ones than live ones sadly over the years, but certainly seen them and not always in remotely wild places either, in fact several in our neighbourhood think theres some living on the heathland near by, but who visit our more urban area gardens at night, though I do wonder if theyre mistaking them for foxes alot of the time, but Ive seen the pictures shared on our local facebook group from one of those Springwatch style trail cams, and it was for sure a badger, so theyre definitely about.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Only when she opened her legs...



... Anyway... I have only seen real badgers as taxidermy specimens or once dead on a railway track in Kent. 😏

 

[FrankCrank]

Sadly only a few dead ones. Same for hedgehogs in recent years.

Couple of years ago, on a vacation back there, was fortunate to see an otter on the Kennet, virtually in Reading town centre.

 

[Beebo]

I actually saw a beaver last night. Oh err missus.
Swimming in a lake at the end of my garden. (I am currently renting a lakeside Airbnb in Canada)
Not a great photo but it was very dark.

 

[steveindenmark]

I see them quite often here in Denmark. Always very early in the morning. I once had one run alongside of me for about 200m when I was riding a recumbent trike.

 

[Homers Double]

I posted the other week, one must have been sleep walking as it wandered across the field behind our house at around 1pm.
First time in 48 years I’ve ever seen one alive.
To be fair, I didn’t see a live fox until I was about 30.

 

[Mburton1993]

I think I saw a couple on Sunday on a county road near Sandtoft. But it was really early, dark and foggy so I only saw their outlines and glowing eyes. So could have been badgers, might have been fog monsters.

 

[cyberknight]

seen one? i had to bunny hop one that ran across the road right into my path once on a country lane !It was pitch black and i couldnt avoid it , felt the animals body hitting the chainrings as i tried my best to get over it . I have never pedalled so fast to get away afterwards .

 

[Chris S]

I've seen a live badger, just before it ran in front of my car. It was at night so the only thing that I saw were the white markings on it's face. It looked spooky.

 

[Electric_Andy]

About 30 years ago I was out on the farm at dusk, shooting rabbits. I turned to climb over a gate and there were 2 badgers right in front of me. I shat myself and leapt onto the gate, and they scurried off. My dad had told me that if cornered, they can be aggressive and bite your leg. And also some sort of wives tale/myth/half truth that game keepers used to poke sticks down their wellies so that if a badger bit them, the sticks would break and the badgers would let go, thinking they'd broken your leg!

But apart from that I don't think I've seen a live one. Plenty dead on the road though.

 

[bonzobanana]

I went through a park close to my home a few years ago and I think it was around 9-10pm and a mother and about 5 cubs ran about close to me for a few seconds before all running off probably because they realised I was there. I was a bit worried at the time because a friend many years ago was attacked by a Badger but I just stopped walking and waited for them to leave. Some of the cubs actually circled me before catching up with the mother. I actually felt quite privileged to see this. I've seen quite a few foxes over the years including a silver/grey fox actually climbing a gate which I didn't even realise they could do as well as being surprised by the colour of it. Only about 10 days ago I saw a beautiful normal fox in my mother's garden while visiting her who lives close to me. It saw me looking and ran off. I can't remember the last time I saw a Hedgehog yet in the past it felt like I saw them all the time. When I used to cycle to work from Yeovil to Sherborne many years ago for a nightshift I used to get a rabbit salute where I would cycle past a huge amount of rabbits lined up waiting to cross the dual carriageway and actually got pretty close as I cycled past them only a metre to 2 metres away but they treated me like other vehicles and didn't run away just waited for me to pass. I would estimate something like 30-40 rabbits where waiting to cross. Sadly I would pass the body of a rabbit occasionally on that dual carriageway.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

They occasionally turn up in our back garden - they like KFC bones!

 

[presta]

The are/were a family of badgers living in the woods next to Barrow House YHA. In the evening the staff used to put a pile of kitchen scraps on a tree stump at the front of the hostel, and at dusk the badgers used to come out for a feast whilst an audience gathered around to watch. There were about half a dozen of them as I recall.

Other than that, the only badger I've seen was a dead one in the road whilst out cycling one day. I saw a note about it in the paper a few days later, apparently it had been dumped there by badger baiters to look like roadkill.

 

[MichaelW2]

When I lived in Hastings, I was cycling back home very late at night, through a long park with a badger set at one end.
I saw a large shape moving at my speed about 1m to my right. Eventually I saw enough to confirm badger. We carried on up the path togther for about 100m.
I was a bit concerned that he would bite me but Im not sure he knew I was there.