Badger Trust excited to announce new and exciting citizen-science project, the State Of The Badger

Volunteers are invited to get involved in our ambitious new badger survey looking at badger population health in England and Wales.

The State of the Badger project is a landmark piece of work for Badger Trust as we look to assess the true impact of the badger cull, crime, and increasing development on badger populations.

The exact number of badgers in Britain is unknown, and there is an urgent need to understand the population health of Britain's largest remaining carnivore. Badger Trust’s first-ever State of the Badger survey will assess the current population trends for badgers in England and Wales.

This ambitious project’s pilot stage is generously funded by the John Spedan Lewis Foundation and LUSH. State Of The Badger will be Badger Trust’s first citizen-science project, as well as the first large-scale assessment of badger population health to be carried out since the mass culling of badgers began 10 years ago.

We know that over 210,000 badgers have been killed by the government-endorsed cull alone in the past 10 years, and it is estimated that thousands more badgers are killed annually in road traffic collisions. This is without considering the uncalculated losses from crime and unlawful development. So large numbers of human-caused badger deaths have happened in a relatively short time frame. However, we don’t know how this impacts local, regional, and national badger population levels and their potential for recovery.

We hope that this pilot will be the first in a series of studies to address this gap in our knowledge and help us better conserve Britain’s most iconic native mammal.

Working together for badgers

Inspired by a similar project by Scottish Badgers called Get Sett Scotland, we will be relying on members of the public from our badger groups as well as recruiting new volunteers that are not currently engaged with badger conservation. Our pilot project volunteers will help us gather data on badger setts and badger presence to better understand the threats to badgers and their potential for population recovery.

To conduct a study of this size is a big team effort, and we are working closely with Colleges and Universities, other wildlife and environmental NGOs, landowners, and Trusts. We have also established a fantastic team of experts to join our Scientific Advisory Group, with expertise in badger conservation and welfare, citizen-science projects, and population surveys.

And after a year in the planning, we have just recruited our Research Coordinator for the project, Victoria Coulton. Victoria has a Master’s degree from Durham University and experience with wildlife population surveys, volunteer training, and meso-carnivores.

Peter Hambly, Executive Director for Badger Trust, said:

“We are really excited to have Victoria join our team for our State Of The Badger Project. Victoria brings with her a lot of skills that we were looking for and a passion for carnivores that makes her a great fit for leading badger survey work.”

He continued :

“Victoria will deliver the project together with our Campaigns and Research Manager, Dr Hannah Trayford, and with the help of over 50 volunteers.

We hope we’ll finally have the data that we need to start to understand the true impact of human-created stressors on badgers in England.”

The badgers of England and Wales need YOU!

Are you interested in getting involved with the State Of The Badger pilot survey? All volunteers will undergo extensive training and receive a comprehensive training pack and all data collection resources.

We particularly welcome anybody that may not have any experience with badgers previously and would like to be involved and do something to help us protect our beautiful native wildlife.

Crucially, this project will help more people get to know badgers and their way of life, and as it’s said, to know them is to love them…

How to get involved

If you would like to be involved in this landmark piece of work for badgers in England and Wales, please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

A project of this size is a huge financial undertaking, especially for a small charity. If you would like to support our work for badgers, you can donate to us here.

Further information:

You can learn more about the project and any updates on our dedicated State Of The Badger web page.