About Scottish Badgers

Scottish Badgers is an independent Scottish charity. It was founded in 1999, with encouragement from the Scottish Government, who perceived a need for a non-statutory body to work in this field.

Scottish Badgers cooperates closely with the Badger Trust, whose activities cover all the other areas of the British Isles. It should be noted that the law on badgers differs in each country of the U.K.

Aims

  • To promote the study, conservation and protection of badgers, their setts and natural habitat in Scotland.

What We Do

  • Survey and record the presence of badgers
  • Provide training for our members and professionals in badger ecology, awareness, field skills, and the law.
  • Work with young people to fire their imagination and create positive attitudes to the environment
  • Prevent badger persecution and crime
  • Provide expert advice to the public on all badger matters
  • Provide expert advice to professionals in planning, development, transport, forestry and agriculture
  • Provide expert advice and assistance to the police and the S.S.P.C.A. and expert witnesses to the courts
  • Increase public awareness of badgers and the threats they face

Our Team

Ian Hutchison:

Ian HutchisonSpecies Protection Officer
Ian Hutchison is a self-employed consultant with Scottish Badgers being his main client. Ian is a retired police officer having served in both the military and then civilian police forces working as a part time wildlife crime officer in the latter years of his service with Tayside Police. He has been able to help a great deal with the protection of badgers in Scotland and more recently took on the role of Crime Prevention lead for the UK Badger Persecution Priority Plan which extends his work to the whole of the UK. It was during his time as a WLO that he became interested in badgers and their protection. Over the past ten years or so his experience in dealing with both criminal and commercial problems relating to badgers has led him to gain a wide experience of the species. Ian still has a keen interest in bird watching, photography, playing guitar and has recently set up a small business with his wife making jewellery. 

Elaine Rainey:

Elaine RaineyDevelopment Officer
Elaine has been with Scottish Badgers since 2006 when she came on board as the Survey Coordinator for the Scottish Badger Distribution Survey.  In 2010, she stepped into the role of Development Officer where her remit expanded to include the management and development of our training and education programmes; volunteer management; youth work and publicity.

Elaine has a degree in Countryside Management from the Scottish Agricultural College and a degree in Architecture from Edinburgh College of Art.  Before joining Scottish Badgers, Elaine worked with The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers in Northern Ireland as a Project Officer on a wildflower biodiversity project.  She has also worked with one of Europe’s oldest eco-design practices, specialising in community participation and innovative, environmentally sound design.

Outside of her work with Scottish Badgers, Elaine can generally be found somewhere within the Tweed Valley studying her beloved local otters.  She also publishes articles and poetry on wellbeing and natural living.

Past Projects

  • We set up and ran the Scottish Badger Distribution Survey, 2006-09, which involved around 600 volunteers, covered around 900 1 km. squares, (sampled and stratified),  and plotted the incidence of main badger setts in various habitats.
  • We recommended and lobbied for improvements to the law protecting badgers. These were brought about by The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, and The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011.
  • We developed the current Scottish Badgers Training System for volunteers with the aid of Scottish GovernAnnual

Annual Reports

The charity publishes a report each year, as well as complete accounts, available to all those who wish to see them. In 2012, we moved to a shorter and more user friendly format to ensure the material is more readable. Past reports and accounts are now available.

Our Sponsors and Funders

The following have supported Scottish Badgers over several past years, and we are very grateful for that;

Find Scottish Badgers on Facebook Follow Scottish Badgers on Twitter

Contacts:

For issues related to badger crime, legislation, planning, mitigation, data searches and to log badger records:

Ian Hutchison, Species Protection Officer

13 Eddie Avenue, Brechin DD9 6YD

T: 07866 844232

E:

For issues related to education, training, events, volunteering, youth projects, web presence, newsletter, publicity and general enquiries:

Elaine Rainey, Development Officer

43 Montgomery Street, Innerleithen EH44 6JP

T: 07896 771867

E:

Sponsors:

Scottish Badgers (SCIO) Charity Number SCO34297.