An artificial sett built for badgers who escaped a death sentence has welcomed its first tenants - but they're the wrong badgers.

The Department for the Enivironment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has spent thousands of pounds building the home after a mass protest against plans to cull the brocks accused of burrowing beneath the foundations of nearby houses in suburban Saltdean.

But three of the five badgers have found themselves a new natural sett half a mile away and an opportunistic female has taken up residence.

The audacious animal has made herself at home in the luxury pad, built in August and modelled on an underground log cabin under 24-hour CCTV surveillance.

One of the threatened animals, another female, has successfully moved into a second artificial dwelling close by.

The last of the five badgers, an obstinate elderly boar who kept returning to the old sett, was finally evicted yesterday.

He will be taken to an animal sanctuary for a week while work starts to seal off the sett.

Experts and campaigners say the project shows there are alternatives to culling, despite the hiccup.

The creatures hit the headlines in October last year when Government ministers issued a licence to kill them.

The licence was suspended after round-the-clock protests from animal lovers and talks began between Defra and organisations such as the South Downs Badger Group and the National Federation of Badger Groups.

In August, 11 months after the outcry, work began on the two new setts, made up of small chambers and a network of twisting paths of flexible pipes.

The homes were left to settle for two months before the creatures could move in.

Trevor Weeks, of the South Downs Badger Group, said: "So far I'm pleased but there is still some work to go.

"The project has shown that animals are as individual as humans and what works for one may not work for all.

"I'm pleased the residents who were affected now have a long-term solution. I take my hat off to Defra for backing down."