Badger caught on film for first time in residential Brussels

A video from a home security camera has just been released of a badger knocking around on a front stoop in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. It is the first time the animal has ever been seen in a residential neighbourhood of the Capital-Region, as they normally avoid urban areas. Badgers also usually hibernate, and this one was filmed at the end of January.

According to Brussels’ league for the protection of birds, whose services also encompass small mammals, the badger came back to the Sonian Forest in 2007 after a 14-year absence. Being nocturnal, they have only ever been captured in the forest on wildlife cameras after dark.

The badger checking out a house in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre  ©Courtesy LRBPO

“Normally they pass the winter in their burrows,” Thomas Jean of the protection league told La Capitale. “This one was either looking for new territory or had gotten lost. Another theory is that the badger has made itself at home in an old fox’s burrow. There are many foxes living around Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.”

Jean asks if anyone else sees or has camera footage of a badger that the footage be shared with the league.

Sonian forest ranger Willy Van de Velde said that there are very few badgers in the area, largely disappearing 30 years ago “because of hunting, people veering off the paths and dogs not on a leash. Badgers like to be left alone.”

Photo top: ©Kallerna/Wikipedia