Caucasian badger

The badger is an omnivore and chooses food according to its environment. Its diet may include earthworms, insects, fruit, small vertebrates and crops. Food composition varies considerably across Europe. In wetter regions, earthworms are often important, while in dry and Mediterranean-type environments insects, fruit and other available foods play a larger role. Studies from western Anatolia also describe fruit, insects and earthworms. This page does not have a separate diet study for Georgia, so it would be wrong to give specific local percentages. The likely picture here is also opportunistic feeding, with diet changing by local environment and season.

The badger is mainly active at night and at dusk, though it may sometimes appear by day, especially in quiet places with little disturbance. Seeing one during the day does not by itself mean that the animal is sick. The badger lives in a sett. Its den may include several entrances, underground tunnels and chambers. Spoil heaps are often visible near the entrances. A well-developed sett may be used for many years, sometimes by several generations. Delayed implantation is characteristic of badgers in the genus Meles: after fertilisation, embryo development pauses for a time. Mating may occur in spring and summer, while cubs are usually born in late winter or early spring. A litter often contains several cubs. This information is based on biology studied across the wider range, not specifically on Georgia’s population. The badger’s track is broad and easy to notice. The foot has five toes, and the long claws of the forefeet are often visible in tracks; they are adapted for digging setts. The track shown on this page was photographed in Vayots Dzor, Armenia, on 18 August 2026 and is not a separate Georgian data series.

In the 2016 IUCN assessment, the European badger (Meles meles) is assessed as Least Concern (LC). That assessment included some populations now often treated as the separate species Meles canescens. Meles canescens itself currently has no separate IUCN assessment. The badger is not included in Georgia’s 2014 Red List. On the national map its status is given as NE, and the population is described as “small”. That is the wording of a particular source, not the result of a new nationwide population assessment. In Georgia the badger is listed as a hunting species. In the official list the Latin name is mistakenly written as Martes meles, but the intended animal is the badger, not a marten. Hunting seasons and quotas are set by current agency documents, so this page does not copy changing numbers. Locally, pressure on badgers may be connected with hunting, road mortality and conflict with people, for example near crops and apiaries. The available data on this page do not assess a national population trend. Do not try to handle or catch a wild badger.