Each badger Clan has its own area - called a territory or a home range. The territory contains one or more badger setts, and places where the badgers can find regular food. The badgers have their own pathways, linking their setts and feeding areas.

If a badger from one clan wanders into the territory of another clan, there may be trouble. If the incoming badger is discovered, a fight may break out. As badgers have very powerful jaws and sharp teeth, nasty injuries can be inflicted when they fight. A badger which gets into a fight with another badger may well end up with a wound on its rump, just above the tail.

Fights can also take place between members of the same clan. This usually happens when there are too many badgers in the clan, and not enough food to go round; or when badgers are trying to fight their way up the pecking order to become a dominant boar or sow. If proper fights break out, the younger animals may then be forced out the clan and have to find somewhere else to live. This may be in a small sett on the edge of the territory, or in another territory altogether.

In fact, badgers are a little unusual in having such a strong family group or clan which reigns supreme over the territory. The clan will often take greats pains to try and cover most of the territory each night, walking on most of their regular well-worn pathways. They may well take the opportunity to scent mark and defecate on the boundaries which mark the edge of their territory. It is believed that the clan does this, because it collectively has the time to mark out and protect its territory. A lone badger would not have enough time to scent-mark its territory and gather and eat enough food to enable its long-term survival.

A territory can vary in size and shape, depending on many factors. These will include the availability of food, the ability to gather that food, the pressures on the territory from other badger clans, physical barriers or hardships (like wide rivers, railways, motorways and busy trunk roads). A particular territory will be sized so as to provide a large enough regular food supply for the clan. Accordingly, "good" territories, such as those with large amounts of regularly cut grassland may be relatively smaller. Territories which have a less good food supply (such as those in rough moorland or steep craggy mountainside areas, may be much larger in relative terms.

In an area which provides a very poor habitat, the territory may be as large as 0.5 square miles (320 acres).