Dang! I know they’re tough but they are so cute 
I appreciate the way you deal with wildlife.
Thought you might appreciate this mem.
https://br.ifunny.co/picture/a-steamy-evening-dump-american-badgers-look-like-they-re-CIKuuVuq9?s=cl
4 Likes
I’m good with letting things live and encouraging them to move on, but just don’t get hurt!
7 Likes
I agree, but my concern about the safety of the horses (from stepping in Badger holes to actually having a Badger attack a curious or defensive horse) would have me doing everything possible to get the critter to move on.
I would be very concerned if a Badger was pregnant. They’re dangerous enough without having to deal with a protective mother defending her offspring.
3 Likes
Absolutely. That would be a nope-nope-nope from me on letting it stay on the property, unless it was way far away like OP described the ones at the end of the driveway. I’d still be on edge with them down there!
4 Likes
We set the trail cam up last night. There were no badger sightings yesterday… just a bit more digging around the hay and tack room floor first thing in the AM, from the night before. I hope he/she has moved on. It will be interesting next year when I take the pallets under the current small square bale stack apart to rake/clean up the hay from this year’s crop. That’s when I’ll see the extent of whatever that badger was doing under there.
1 Like
The trail cam shows that the badger is indeed still present. Last night he was out and about, caught on camera. There are no further excavations, but he hasn’t left yet after all. Glad that we have the trail cam. Glad that I moved that hay out of there. Will continue to be careful, and will continue with the trail cam nightly until we get no further pictures of our visitor.
5 Likes
http://www.ontariobadgers.org/biology.html
(This is not an HTTPS site but it was the most thorough article)
From what I’ve been reading, they are nomadic and move on fairly quickly. Did you mention, when you reported the Badger, that it was in one of your farm buildings? They are supposedly wary of people and yours isn’t?
In the article linked , they want to know about sightings of dead Badgers as well as live ones, so they are quite interested in any sort of sighting.
To which agency did you report the Badger? Did they give you any feedback or safety information other than “don’t kill it”?
I think it is illegal to harass them, but it really is dangerous to have them in your outbuilding.
I hope you find an agency that can help you with the situation.
It’s an interesting problem to have.
1 Like
This badger did not seem to be too worried about ME standing there looking blankly at it, trying to register exactly what I was seeing at that first meeting. There was no option to tell anyone that it was living in my arena under my tackroom on the reporting form. I have heard nothing from them about the report. I reported to the group on the link provided here yesterday. The form wanted to know my general location (and took my email, but I have heard nothing from them yet), and whether the badger was dead or alive. I guess, often they are dead, found on a road. Because I don’t think that they think that much of anything is a threat to them, including traffic. This badger did not seem overly concerned about the sight of me, or the DH when he went down there later. He was concerned enough about the horse coming to GET him and turn him into hoof packing, to get out of the way and back to the den for shelter. He doesn’t seem to be too worried about humans.
We will keep on putting the trail cam down there, focused on the main entrance/exit to the den each night. And I’m trying to stay away from using the arena for now. With the hay bale outside now (rained last night too GRRRR!!), at least I don’t have to be prying hay off it and into a wheelbarrow to feed. But I do have to go in there on and off. Carefully.
From the article linked above. I don’t know how old it is, but you can give it a try.
Ontario Badgers. Report a Badger: 1-877-715-9299
From reading the literature He/She may have tunnels under your arena footing. Be careful. 
There isn’t much I can do to convince this badger to leave the property. I think it will leave, and soon, on it’s own. When we get a night or a few nights without it showing up on the trail camera, it will probably be gone. When I think it’s gone, I will fill in the hole that it has dug. If the den remains filled in, then the badger is truly gone. If it is re-opened, then the badger is still here. Until then, we presume that the badger is still here.
Though it does not run away from us, it has made no advance towards humans. I was only about 10 feet away from it that first day, when I walked into the arena, saw the hole, and saw the creature lookin’ back at me, while I attempted to process what I was seeing. Believe me… it took a half a minute or so, going “HUH??? What IS this??? Oh, I think it’s a badger. This isn’t good.” Then it went back into it’s new den, and turned around, and looked back out at me, in the shelter of the new burrow.
3 Likes
I ain’t gonna be riding in there for a while I think!!
I think the tunnels and burrow is limited to being under the tackroom floor, and under the pallets under the hay stack next to the tackroom. There are several openings made under the hay stack, leading back towards the haystack and tackroom. No sign of any tunneling under the ring footing further out. Yet.
2 Likes
Hopefully it’s finding some rats (if you have them.) Silver lining?
2 Likes
Oh man, I’d LOVE it if the badger would eat pack rats. Because that is the sort of rat that is here. Very stinky!!! I don’t think that ANYTHING eats them! Unfortunately.
1 Like
Your attitude towards wildlife is commendable. I hope you can just make the neighborhood a bit less hospitable and the little guy will move on. They have excellent hearing. Maybe blast some obnoxious music near the den?
2 Likes
Full grown badgers are not so little.
They are bigger than a big cat, round and flat, like an upside down medium sized dog bed with short legs, at least until they stretch out to reach for something.
They don’t walk as much as move like a shiny wave, a thick rug undulating along the ground.
Once you see one, you don’t forget how they look and move, like no other critter.
4 Likes
The irony of explaining badger traits and behaviors to a user named “Badger” is not lost on me.
11 Likes
In a rather strange turn of events yesterday, the gates I have at the entrance of the arena (to hopefully keep the dam deer OUT) were OPEN yesterday morning. They had been closed when I fed horses the night before. I don’t know how the badger opened these gates, or why. Almost thought that a human intruder had been there… but nothing was stolen (nothing is worth stealing- my tack is worthless and old style, and a bunch of dirty saddle pads etc) and there aren’t a lot of humans around here. The trail cam did not show what had happened. A bit more digging tailings present from under the hay stack with some bigger rocks in it. But no sign of the badger itself. We pushed the mining tailings back into the holes under the hay stack, and set the camera back up at a different angle. We have not seen the badger out and about like he was the first day. Will see this morning if the mining tailings are cleared from the burrow entrances, or if they are still blocked. Maybe he’s gone???
1 Like
Weird about the gates. Were they latched?
1 Like
