Märka mäkra

The Year of the Badger has ended but here is a recent trail camera image of badgers. The snow has come and gone, and come and gone again this year in Valgamaa. At most there was about 10 cm of it. At  present there is no snow and it seems as if the sleep of badgers has vanished with the snow. From January 23rd they have come out of the burrow every evening  at about 7 o’clock to go on their badgers’ business.

Kalmer Lehepuu

Posted by the team of the Animal of the Year 23.12.2016

On the threshold of early winter let us glance at the autumn this year. The peculiarity of the 2016 autumn was the early snow. Already on October 25 the first snowmen appeared in Estonia. True, their life was not long..

In the Saaremaa badger camera we saw most recently five sturdy animals on November 5, just before the arrival of frost and snow. On November 12 when we finished transmitting for this year from the badger sett and brought the camera to the red deer site the thermometer again went back gently to the plus side and drizzle.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 09.11.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 29.10.2016

The best viewing times for the badger camera now are in the evenings between 18.30- 22.00 and in mornings between  5.00-7.00.
Video captured by  fleur3979

Overeating makes one sleepy, lazy and fat. Only a month ago such an image was not to be thought of: the badger flops down to sleep in front of the burrow. But a badger preparing for winter tends to be tired after one more major bellyful.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 15.10.2016
Video recorded by Tiit Hunt, rmk.ee

The badgers return home ever later in autumn, in the video we see that they arrived at the burrows at 6.30 pm. In the background a buzzard is clearly heard "Kjää, kjäää.". Closer a chiff-chaff ticks gently.

Video recorded by  aita3331 from the badger forum

Brown rat in front of badger burrow. All, birds as well as small mammals, seem to regard death outside or inside the predator's burrow as the natural course of things. 
Video: Tiit Hunt

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 01.09.2016

In the video clip from the evening of August 16th firstly an adult badger is visible and then suddenly, running with quick steps, clearly slimmer creatures – the cubs of this year. How long we have waited for this sight in the badger camera!
Video captured by Fleur.in the badger camera forum.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 19.08.2016

The middle of summer has passed. The closer to autumn, the more fruits are ripe, or ripening, in nature. It is a good time for a badger to start preparing for winter. Among important tasks the duty to fatten up one’s body has moved into the foreground.

How the badger’s home might look below ground only the badger itself knows; hunters who have excavated badger burrows might have an idea. The latter experiences are mostly from the time when raccoon dog skins were still highly valued.

I saw fox cubs at play around a chipping wood stack. This is also a bit of explanation to the fact that the fox burrows in the neighbourhood were empty this year. Why a fox family should prefer chips stacks to the burrows is not clear. In the stacks at field verges brown hares (Lepus europaeus), various rodents, weasels and stoats may also live, in addition to the above foxes and raccoon dogs. In forests there are also pine martens and several more rodent species besides those mentioned. Of birds I have come across wagtails, redbacked shrikes, whitethroats, blackbirds, wrens, robins etc.

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In addition to the badgers, sometimes also foxes and raccoon dogs live in badger setts but with the changes in the use of wood their choice of places for living has widened in recent years. A new phenomenon in our landscape are the stacks of wood chips. As ever, nature does not like empty space and so new inhabitants have quickly moved into these stacks too. Usually stacks left standing for a somewhat longer period are preferred. Furred as well as feathered species live there.