The badger is classified as an opportunistic omnivore, meaning its diet shifts significantly depending on the region and time of year. Despite possessing a broad palate, a badger’s foraging patterns are often driven by localized abundance. Their diet is nearly always dominated by one type of prey that provides the bulk of their nightly nutrition, allowing them to thrive in diverse environments.
The Primary Staple Food
Across most of Europe, the badger’s diet is dominated by the earthworm, which serves as the most important food source. Common species like Lumbricus terrestris and L. rubellus can make up between 60% and 80% of a badger’s total food intake in northern and western regions. Earthworms are nutrient-dense, providing the protein and fat necessary for badgers to build reserves for winter. A single adult can consume several hundred worms in one night to meet its energy needs.
The availability of earthworms depends heavily on environmental conditions, particularly soil moisture and temperature. Foraging is most productive on damp, mild nights, such as after rain or during spring and autumn, when earthworms remain close to the surface. When the soil is too dry from drought or too cold and frozen in winter, earthworms burrow deeper and become quiescent. This forces the badger to seek alternative prey.
Diverse Seasonal Supplements
When the earthworm supply dwindles, badgers switch to a variety of supplementary foods. Throughout the summer and autumn, plant matter becomes a significant part of the diet, including fruits, berries, and nuts. Badgers consume elderberries, blackberries, apples, and agricultural crops like corn and wheat to build fat reserves before winter. This reliance on fruits and cereals is pronounced in Mediterranean regions where earthworms are less abundant due to drier soil conditions.
Other invertebrates form a regular part of their diet, especially during warmer months. Badgers actively seek out and consume large quantities of insects, such as beetles, leatherjacket larvae, and chafer grubs, which they dig from beneath the soil surface. They also opportunistically prey on small vertebrates, including mice, voles, young rabbits, amphibians, and the eggs of ground-nesting birds. The consumption of these supplementary items increases drastically during periods of earthworm scarcity.
Unique Foraging Strategies
The badger is physically adapted for digging, possessing a powerful body and strong forelimbs equipped with long, non-retractable claws. These adaptations are employed in unique foraging techniques that rely heavily on an acute sense of smell rather than sight, as badgers are primarily nocturnal. They use their snout to probe the ground, leaving distinctive, small, conical depressions in the soil known as “snuffle holes.” These holes are created as the badger sniffs out earthworms, grubs, and other underground invertebrates.
Another specialized technique is “grubbing,” where the badger tears up turf or soil with its claws to access concentrated pockets of insect larvae, such as chafer or crane fly grubs. They also unearth wasp and bumblebee nests to consume the protein-rich larvae and honeycomb. Foraging involves following established paths through their territory and quickly excavating prey once their powerful nose has located it beneath the surface.