Badger Surveys

Badger surveys

Badgers and their holes (setts) are protected in England and Wales under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, making it illegal to:

• Wilfully kill, injure, take, possess or cruelly ill-treat a badger,
• Damage/destroy/obstruct their setts, or
• Disturb a badger in a sett

Where impacts to badger is likely then surveys to establish the population size and how they use your site and adjacent land will be required to inform a suitable badger mitigation strategy. Surveys for badger are relatively straightforward to carry out, but there are restricted times of the year when this is possible. 

Survey methods include searches for signs of badger activity and presence (setts, paths, latrines, scratch markings, recent digging, and nesting debris). If badgers are found, then a mitigation licence will be required.

Badger mitigation strategy

Either as part of a mitigation licence or as a stand-alone avoidance measures document, a badger mitigation strategy will ensure that you are lawfully protected during development works.

The strategy is used to clearly describe how and when the proposed development and mitigation work will be carried out will be required to ensure that badgers are not killed, injured, or unduly disturbed. This may include the closure of existing setts where development works may impact on badger and the creation of new artificial setts.