Badgers enjoying their cereal snack at the Enchanted Manor hotel, in Niton.
GUESTS at a hotel in Niton have been entertained by a group of badgers emerging from the woods every night and joining them for dinner.
Like clockwork, up to seven badgers stroll out of the woods at dusk every evening to enjoy a tea-time feast of Kellogg’s Cornflakes.
The normally shy badgers have left guests at the luxury Enchanted Manor amazed as they mingle with foxes in the garden at the hotel and shun their usual diet of worms to wolf down their favourite cereal.
Maggie Hilton, owner of the Enchanted Manor, said: "The badgers have been visiting us for years, they are really tame and friendly and our guests can’t believe their eyes when they creep out of the woods every night and into our garden.
"The badgers love nothing more than dining on a bowl of Kellogg’s Cornflakes, they are really fussy I have tried putting out other cereals but they turn their nose up at them."
Badgers, which are nocturnal, can travel up to a mile to feed and search for food.
Kellogg’s has pledged to supply the Enchanted Manor with free cornflakes to keep the badgers well fed.
A spokesperson for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust said: "Badgers can often be seen foraging for food in gardens and they can certainly make a mess when digging for earthworms. The badgers at the Enchanted Manor seem unusually tame and less shy around humans than your average badger.
"There are lots of simple things that you can do to encourage wildlife to your garden or local area. The three basics are to provide food, shelter and water. Putting up artificial nest boxes, bird feeders, leaving food scraps on the lawn, building a pond or simply being a less 'tidy’ gardener are all easy ways to attract wildlife to your patch."
Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk