This is the incredible story of how I filmed a young family of badgers in their secret underground world.
Badgers are elusive
Badgers live in deep burrows, known as setts, and only come out to forage at night. Their brief daylight forays make it difficult to get a thorough understanding of their characters and as a wildlife artist I've always wanted to learn more. So I built an underground badger sett and installed cameras into secret chambers within it. Then the day came when I learned of three young cubs that had been found wandering about on their own along a roadside, having clearly lost their mother.
Badger rehabilitation
With the help of a wildlife rehabilitation centre, I placed the cubs into my artificial sett until they were ready to be released into the wild. I let the cameras roll as they got to know their new home and the resulting footage revealed a magical, secret world. I learned so much about badger behaviour, especially about how playful these creatures are and I saw things I had never seen before. Simple things, like yawning, were all new to me! Watch the film to see a badger yawn - in case you too have never seen one - and follow their story from the day they arrived until the day came to release them into the wild. Until this point they had not seen or felt grass and it is so special to see them take their first steps outside.
