Badgers are found all across Belgium, from farmland edges to woodland. Their setts can be enormous — a family group called a clan might use the same network of tunnels for dozens of years, adding new rooms and passages each generation. Some setts are hundreds of years old.
A badger's front paws have long, powerful claws perfectly designed for digging. In a single night, a badger can shift more than 30 kilograms of earth. They dig not just to make homes, but also to find food — earthworms are their favourite meal, and a hungry badger can eat hundreds in one night.
Badgers are very clean animals. They regularly bring fresh bedding of dry grass and leaves into their sleeping chambers, and they always use a special toilet area well away from the main sett. This tidiness is unusual among wild mammals.
Baby badgers, called cubs, are born in late winter. They stay underground for the first few weeks of life, kept warm by their mother. By spring, the cubs begin exploring outside the sett entrance — tumbling, play-fighting, and learning what is safe to eat.