Badgers are an animal success story. I recall in my youth that it was a whispering event to even find a badger sett. Now it is common to see road kill badger even if you have never seen a live badger or sett.

There is an active sett only 200 yards from my house, and I know of four others locally without looking too hard for them.

Hard to put a finger on a single specific for the successful growth in the population other than no one really has daggers drawn on badgers. Being nocturnal they go about their business in darkness, eating mainly earthworms, slugs, beetles etc along with occasional mice, ground nesting birds and eggs (but not to the extent that they endanger any bird species)

Their link to Bovine TB has led to their targeting in England, Bovine TB in Scotland currently at a very low level. The reduction in dairy farming in Scotland, allied to the faster turnaround of beef cattle, has saved them being regarded as an agricultural pest in Scotland.

An attractive animal to look at, and apart from the odd lawn wrecking individual, not known to cause undue damage in the countryside.

They do stand accused of one crime and that is causing the crash in the hedgehog population. Hedgehogs have always been part of their diet so it is logical that the surge in growth of the badger population has contributed to the scarcity now of hedgehogs.

There is no doubt that is a contribution, but not the whole story. The use of slug pellets, the loss of hedgerows, loss of field edges, use of agricultural pesticides etc

have had an equal effect on hedgehogs.