Children

Children are often fascinated by badgers and wildlife; and often want to see them to see just how cuddly they are. Of course, badgers aren't always totally cuddly, and growing up children are often very keen to see the reality of badgers - in tooth and claw if need be.

"The world of badgers is in some ways analogous with the human world. Like us, their behaviour is greatly influenced by their need for homes and living space, and being social like we are, they too have their problems of learning how to live together ..... and with us" Ernest Neal

Do badgers attack children?

• We have never heard of a badger making an attack on a child.
• We have never heard of a child provoking a badger into attacking it.
• We have never heard of a badger biting, scratching or jumping on a child (or a baby).
• We have never heard of a child catching any wildlife disease from a badger.
• We have never heard of a child having a fatal accident falling into a badger sett.

Peace of Mind

If you really want to have additional peace of mind:

• Caution your children not to dig into any tunnels they find, or push their hands, feet or other children into them. A minor sneeze or snuffle from a badger deep inside the tunnel could cause the child's imagination to go into over-drive so they become terrified of the natural world.
• Caution them not to put their hands into the unknown, because they might put their hands into "poo" and "urine" which may be present in the tunnel if it is used by foxes, rabbits, weasels, stoats or rats.
• Follow strict hand-washing regimes before eating, if children have been playing in the garden. Badgers, like other animals (and family pets) can carry internal and external parasites, as well as harbouring wildlife diseases which can, in principle, affect humans. Using hot water and good soap/detergent on the hands is a good idea; as is removing dirt from under the fingernails.
• Make sure your children have been vaccinated against the usual illnesses and infections, such as BGC (the Tuberculosis vaccine) and Tetanus (lockjaw).
• If you have badger tunnels under the children's part of your garden, ask your local Badger Group if they could do a quick survey and to assess the risk of collapse if the children jump on the tunnels or ride bikes or play heavy games on them.

We do not view badgers as having a higher overall risk to children than any other wildlife species, farm animal, poultry or any family pet.

Education

In terms of activities, have a look at our Education Projects page for some ideas for things to do with children.

If you have been given homework to do and want to find out about badgers, then this web site should be a very good place to start. Look up and down the menu on the sides of these pages to see if you can find a heading for the subject you are interested in. If the menu item has a sign, this means the menu will expand to show you more information in separate pages. Otherwise, please use our Search page to look for page which include the keywords you type in. Otherwise, have a look at our Site Map (this is an enormous page as it includes pretty much all the pages on this web site).