Do Badgers Cache Food?

[Sparklebug]

I had a life or limb mission today to a badger sett I found back in spring. It was still occupied, lots of digging out, latrines etc. So all good. They had obviously been foraging a lot in leaf litter, around tree roots and at the base of walls and in the adjoining fields. BUT one thing I did notice was lots and lots of partially buried acorns. I was trying to weigh this up. Could be Jays, I have spotted two in the last year, but much further away. Squirrels....?? Could be, but would they do that so close to Badgers/ the opening of the sett? It is a particularly large sett, spanning quite an area along the wall, with a very steep wooded bank falling away. Quite a good spot for badgers, and I have the cuts and scrapes to prove it! But my question is, would the badgers be caching food? Do they do this?? Maybe they know it may be a bad winter......?? I took a pic I will post later.....

Help!

[mbaldw]

Hi Sparklebug,

interesting observations. No doubt others will be able to provide more personal observation on the subject, but I have never come across any reference to badgers storing/caching food. I would suspect that either Jays or squirrels are the cachers - I have seen both in close proximity to badger setts and I wouldn't be surprised to see them caching near the entrances (especially given the temporal disparity in activity between the species). When I was in Oxford working with the WildCRU guys for an Earthwatch project, I was told that their badgers didn't eat acorns unless conditions were dire.

Cheers,
Marc.

[Dogghound]

As far as im aware badgers dont cache food. Ive never observed or read about it. Although they feed on a lot of nuts like hazel nuts, ive never known them to feed on acorns. I suspect that the disturbed earth around the sett is ideal for squirrels and jays to cache food, in this case its probably most likely jays which have left them.

[Sparklebug]

Mmmmnn thanks chaps. Very interesting feedback. I recently bought a hide with a view to going up there at night to watch them, but conditions are really quite treacherous and it was bad enough going during the day! So maybe I'll never get to find out who the cachers are! When I was there yesterday I saw no living thing, not even a crow or squirrel, so it's a bit of a mystery. But all good for the badgers, it's such a difficult spot to get to I reckon they should be pretty safe.

[Burko]

I'm not aware of this behaviour in badgers but other mustelids certainly do.
Not convinced that acorns are standard fare for a badger either.