Detecting Tunnels of Badger Setts

Techniques employed:- Ground probing radar (GPR)

Client: RPS Consultants, Ashford

GPR is frequently the most successful technique in mapping the extent of badger setts. Badgers often excavate their sets beneath access roads causing concern to the stability of the road and the safety of the badgers themselves. GPR allows a high resolution survey to locate the extent and depth of the tunnels so that an investigation strategy can be planned.

A particular example in Kent involved a contractor inadvertently running construction traffic over a badger sett. The survey was undertaken to assess what damage, if any, had been sustained to the sett.

A general view of the site showing the extent of the intrusion into the area of the sett	The radar being drawn over an entrance to the sett

The interpretaion of the radar survey showing the extent of the sett tunnels and nest site in red. The green areas are where the tunnels may have been abandoned in the past or possibly collapsed as a result of the construction traffic.	This 'time slice of the radar data shows in plan the main area of the sett. Note the good correlation between the known locations of the tunnel entrances and the tunnel posions along the right hand side of the image.