Here are our two badgers, Itchy (male) and Scrawny tail (female)
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Just over two weeks ago, I set out a trail cam on an urban badger sett located under an 8x4 foot shed, in a back garden of a house on a large housing estate. Four days of footage were obtained before the badgers appeared to abandon the sett.
I don't think this is a main sett. I feel it is either an outlier or annex sett. Females can use these types of setts at this time of year. One reason is to get some peace and quiet, particularly from amorous males. Two badgers occupied the sett, and both were female. The owner of the property did say that last year she had badgers under her shed (two adults and, subsequently, a cub) but they left round about May, only to return in October. This could fit in with female badgers using this sett to raise young or may have moved young into it (sows do move their cubs from chamber to chamber, or sett to sett), and that they may return later in the year. However, it looks like foxes may take over the sett in the short term. Therefore, the owner may see fox cubs. Firstly, here is a 3D scan of the urban badger sett, squeezed between the shed and a fence. You can click on the link and then view the model in full screen to see detail. I will be returning to add further photos to this model to better render the back corner of the fence to give better context to the topography of the sett.
On Sunday 22nd February, I took part in a badger sett survey with the Binfield badger group in a large area somewhere to the west of Newbury. On this occasion we were doing a re-survey to check on the condition of existing known and reported setts. This was a nice change from the depressing 'planning application' surveys of late, where we note the positions of any badger setts for areas that may have housing built on them.
I took this opportunity to do a test of getting 3D scans under field conditions, mainly to see if I could get good scans in one go, as it would prove difficult to return to add photographs to the model. This also means that scanning was done offline (the mobile I used does not have a SIM in it), and processing would take place when I got home and used our wi-fi for internet connection. We'll kick off this 3D scan extravaganza with badger latrines. We came across two boundary latrines - an area with multiple latrines used to mark a territorial edge. I took a scan of each latrine (to see test wide angle scan capabilities of RealityScan) and one detail scan of a latrine. Note: I had to take the scans quickly. The survey team were on a tight schedule, which meant no dawdling. I had to keep up.
Before moving on to badger sett 3D scans, I'll show you a scan of a bracket fungus. I would have liked to scan more of the tree branch this fungus is on, but the survey team had already moved on.
Now, on to the badger setts. We came across four badger setts. One was an outlier. Three were main setts. I took scans from two of the main setts: one which had about 6 entrances, the second was the largest sett complex ever found by the Binfield badger group with at least 68 entrances.
The first three scans are from the small sett complex. The remainder from the mega complex; where I experimented with more wide angle scans to get topographical information.
Finally, a paw print. We thought it was a badger paw print when we first saw it. However, on examining the scan closely, we decided that it was the print of a large dog, which had placed its hind paw on top of its front paw print, thus giving the impression of a badger paw print, complete with five toe/claw impressions.
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May 2030
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