 Watch Badgers & Pine Martens!
During your stay you will have the opportunity of visiting our fabulous badger and pine marten hide. Over the past 2 seasons, Aigas guests have been regularly entertained by Dolly the sow badger and her young family, as well as our mischievous pine martens. We encourage the badgers to visit by putting out peanuts for them whilst the pine martens are attracted using strawberry jam and peanuts.
During 2005, Dolly produced 2 cubs, one of which we concluded was a boar. This cub soon dispersed but the other (presumed sow) hung around. In 2006 we only ever saw Dolly with one new cub so either her productivity declined or she lost others before we got a chance to see them. We still see Dolly with two younger looking badgers which we think are the female cubs from 2005 and 2006. Its not unusual for a sows daughters to live in a family group with her. During our "Wild Animals in the Scottish Landscape" week in 2006 we got a glimpse of a large battle-scarred boar badger whose face was covered in scars and whose outer ear-lobes appeared to be missing! We have periodically seen one or two other boars on our video tapes but they never hang around for long.
The Pine martens are doing well here too, last year we regularly saw one dog pine marten but in the spring of 2006 he was joined by a mate. During August 2006 we have seen a pine marten kit so it seems that our family is growing! Over the winter of 2007 we have positively identified three pine martens at our site.
Our enthusiastic staff team continue to visit the hide out of season to ensure that we can deliver an in-depth explanation of what the animals are doing all year round. We currently record activity at the site every day using an infra-red light and simple infra-red camera linked to a home video.
To read about the very latest news from the badger hide check out Staff Naturalist Phil Knott's Wildlife Diary.
Do you feed Badgers or Pine Martens at home? We are very interested in finding out more from other wildlife enthusiasts throughout the country. Feel free to email our Staff Naturalist at phil@aigas.co.uk.
Some of the video footage of the badgers and pine martens was kindly provided by Dr David Dixon - our friendly expert mammal consultant who discovered the link between badger mating and lunar cycles. New video footage added in August 2006 was recorded by Ieuan with a simple hand-held camcorder.
Inside the Viewing Hide
Our badger and pine marten hide allows guests to learn more about the ecology of these fascinating animals as they snuffle and gruffle just feet away. If you'd like more information about badgers and pine marten visit our ecology pages.
Our hide is easy to access, comfortable, and most importantly, midge-free! The long daylight hours of summer allow wonderful views and fantastic photographic opportunities.
Join us in the badger hide in 2007 for a truly special experience of some of the UK's most elusive mammals up close and personal.
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We would like to thank Pro-Optocam Ltd for their generous loan of an infrared illuminator for the badger hide.
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