Found a badger

Last reviewed 25 August 2026. General guidance, not a substitute for a vet or a wildlife rescue. A badger is a large, powerful animal with a serious bite. Do not handle one.

Do not pick it up

This is the one section on the site that starts by telling you not to help directly. An adult badger is heavy, strong and equipped to defend itself, and an injured one is frightened. Even people who work with them use graspers and heavy gloves. Phone a wildlife rescue, the RSPCA, or the police if it is a road incident, and stay back.

Road casualties

Most badger calls are road traffic collisions. If the animal is alive, keep your distance, note the exact location, and phone. If you can do so safely, warn other traffic. Do not attempt to move a live badger out of the road.

A dead badger by the road matters more than it looks. Reporting it helps population and disease surveillance, and in areas with active licensing it can matter to what is recorded. Local badger groups and some authorities take reports.

Cubs

A cub above ground alone in daylight is a genuine cause for concern in a way an adult sighting is not. Do not dig at a sett under any circumstances: interfering with a sett is an offence under section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 regardless of intention, and a rescue will tell you the same.

Signs of a sett being interfered with

Blocked entrances, fresh digging with terrier or spade marks, snares set at runs, or machinery working hard against a bank are what badger groups ask people to report. That is a police matter — wildlife crime — not something to confront.

What the 1992 Act protects, and what it permits under licence, is set out on the law page.