Mangy Badger

[pat191861]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like the most likely explanation.
The two others are a fair bit bigger and often arrive together.
This one seems quite solitary and has learnt to arrive earlier than the others and now has put on a good bit of weight.
Was so thin when we first saw him, you could see his ribs.
One other thing.
We had a wasps nest in an apple tree up to about a month or six weeks ago at the bottom of the garden. The tree is so old that it is hollow and somewhat rotten at the base.
Wasps were active one day and the next there was a big hole dug at the the base with chunks of rotten wood and fragments of nest scattered about the place.
Do badgers do this sort of thing and if so, why?

[Farplace]

yes they will attack wasp nests. REASON? wasps are yummy!!

[Burko]

Badgers frequently raid wasp and bee nests. Take a walk in the countryside and you'll see the destruction everywhere.

[Tobyh]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Badgers being so social and territorial often get into a variety of scrapes with other badgers. This looks like a typical bite wound inflicted by another badger. Badgers often show their rear to other badgers as a sign of submission, this often results in them getting bitten here. Alternatively fighting animals often squirm and circle around resulting in bites to the hind quarters. Some of these rump wounds lack hair and look a lot like your photo. These can also become infected although yours looks normal. The face and shoulders also get badly bitten in fights. As someone mentioned earlier mange is rare in badgers and is often closely associated with TB, as the animal becomes too weak to fight parasites.

Cross post with Farplace

I can't add a better explanation than that but I can offer a similar photo of one of our visitors who has indeed been in the wars. This male has large scars above his right eye too but appears to be with a small family of 3 -4 that come most nights. I get the impression that they are the most submissive of a local badger sett and may have been forced to live on the edge of the territory. I like to think I help them a little with their nightly peanut fix (natural birdfood peanuts)



Looks painful but he seems to be doing well still despite several times seeing these type of scars.

Here's a shot from one of the females (I think!) that shows the scarring healed up over time. Note that the patch is still quite short of hair.



TobyH

[Ben Rigsby]

yeah i agree the wound is caused by other badgers, not mange.
ive trapped thousands of badgers and saw this type of injury often.
the species may look cute n cuddly but really theyre not. infanticide is also common.
not to disparage these mustelids!

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Ben Rigsby

infanticide is also common.

Common or known to occur?

[pat191861]

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my question.
Learned an awful lot and it's such an interesting site.
Thanks again,

Pat