What happens when cat meets badger?

So, the neighbours' cats have not been slow to appreciate there may be a few snacks to be found on the lawn that may appeal to them. I have discussed this with the cats, stressing that they are for the badgers but the cats remain equally convinced that they are for them. 

So here is what happened when the first badger of the evening meets a cat (the one shown above) in the snack zone:

So as you can see in the short video above - what happened was not much! I witnessed the whole interaction and the cat looked up at the badger when it arrived and the badger (being poor of vision) went about its business until it scented the cat. It then raised its head and sniffed in that direction. The cat neither hissed nor arched its back but, after a while, nipped off. It may be that it sensed that more badgers were on their way, as indeed you will see in the second clip. In fact cats and badgers clearly coexist here with no problem.

I think generally speaking there is little chance of confrontation. The cats have better vision and are far more agile and can easily stay out of the way of the badgers. The badgers also seem very risk-averse and rather timid,


A taxi driver was telling me the other evening about his view of badgers. 'They can kill any dog', he insisted. I said that I doubted they would attack dogs and he firmly stated that he knew this to be true and he and his dog were 'attacked' by one.

They were out walking and this badger came 'charging' up the path at them. He threw his beer bottle in its path where it exploded. This,he added, stopped the badger and it turned around and ran off back down the path. He was pleased with this result.

Poor badger! I think what probably happened was that the badger was running away from something else and did not see or smell the taxi-man and dog in its panic, but when the bottle exploded it was minded - not surprisingly - to go the other way. But it is a good example of a likely misinterpretation exacerbated because the taxi man knew that badgers were famously fierce when dogs are deliberately set on them (something he later revealed in conversation) and he thought there was risk and reacted.