In the Saaremaa badger camera we saw most recently five sturdy animals on November 5, just before the arrival of frost and snow. On November 12 when we finished transmitting for this year from the badger sett and brought the camera to the red deer site the thermometer again went back gently to the plus side and drizzle.
I decided to check out the sett of well-known badgers Kadi and Tõnis which is about half a kilometre away from the red deer site. And look, quite fresh badger tracks and a few days old raccoon dog ones. What conclusions can we draw from this? Maybe this, that the badgers don’t plan for a longer sleep now. If the weather has not turned quite cold they still prefer to go outside although the fat layer beneath their fur coat is very thick and there is no need to look for food. During the wintery week however no badger came out from the burrow openings facing the badger camera. Only the raccoon dogs were out making tracks and for a couple of hours even crept into the badger sett to sleep.

Observations from the last three years suggest that in Saaremaa a longer sleep begins in the last days of November. How the badgers will behave this autumn we don’t know yet.
Anyone who knows a badger sett might go to look if there are tracks with five toes and long claws at the burrow.
In Saaremaa the snow has already thawed but on the mainland there is enough of it in many places for several days still. Now tracks are well visible

Tiit Hunt, rmk.ee