188 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Essex Badger Survey—Notes for 1963
By W. Page and D. Scott
The year began with a very cold spell and weather of near
blizzard conditions. During January much snow fell and towards
the end of the month reached some seven inches in depth. It was
found that immediately after fresh snow falls Badger emergence
was somewhat curtailed. The deep soft snow seemed to put them
off and where tracks were found they only extended some two or
three feet from the sett entrance. During this time the snowfall
was accompanied by high winds. The temperature was also very
low, it dropped to 1°F. in parts of the county, but the wind seemed
the deterrent factor from the Badger's point of view. In February
the snow thawed and re-froze again, and as it became more con-
solidated the Badgers grew used to it making much noise as they
crunched across it. A number of watches were done at this time
during the first two months of the year. Those under blizzard
conditions were fruitless but others done in February were more
successful when the snow had become packed down. The Badgers
on these occasions fed voraciously on food put down by the
watchers. One very interesting Badger activity seen during the
cold spell was that of bedding collection. One example was at a
sett near Standsted, Bishops Stortford, where dead grass and
bracken had been pulled up from under the snow layer and
dragged some eighty yards over the snow crust to the sett. The
event was very obvious because grass was littered everywhere over
the snow leading to the sett.
During the remainder of the year watching continued as usual
and the twenty-nine setts being studied regularly were watched
188 times by some or all of the four main Badger watchers. The
population over the twenty-nine setts gave a total of 88 Badgers
comprising 61 adults and 27 cubs. The cubs were seen at ten of
the twenty-nine setts. Where adults only were seen it may well
have been that cubs were present but not seen.
We are indebted to D. Corke and R. Aldridge for supplying
their records for this report.