Badgers saved from slaughter will become the stars of their own video show when they are moved into a luxury new home.

The Saltdean badgers, spared a death sentence following months of protests by animal rights campaigners, are getting new artificial setts built for them on Monday.

Their new homes are surrounded by beautiful gardens, complete with three ponds and a waterfall, and the animals will have video cameras trained on them to watch their every movement.

Like the contestants of Channel 4's Big Brother show, the badgers will be filmed and monitored to see how they cope in their artificial environment.

The Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced yesterday work would begin on creating the setts.

They are to be rehoused just a few metres away from their original setts in Saxon Close, Saltdean, ending almost a year of uncertainty for the animals sentenced to death after some neighbours complained their burrowing was undermining drives, gardens and homes.

Defra, which issued a controversial licence for the animals' slaughter last October, is to build the new setts in the gardens of two couples who offered to take the badgers on their property, helping to solve the dispute over the animals' fate.

Defra's initial decision to cull the badgers sparked fury among animal rights activists.

After protests, the licence was suspended and talks began to find another solution.

For months, the opposing groups appeared to be at a stalemate. Then animal welfare minister Elliot Morley announced in May Defra would pay for the new setts - saving the badgers from slaughter.

The setts are due to be finished on Wednesday but need time to settle before the animals can move in by the end of November.

Once the setts have been built, peanuts will be used to entice the creatures to their new homes.

When they have moved, the tunnels of the original sett will be filled in and the gardens surrounded by badger-proof fences.

The badgers will be clipped so they can be identified.

One of the couples welcoming the badgers, wanted to be known only by their first names, Richard and Barbara.

Richard, a retired architect in his late 50s, said: "We were disturbed over the initial culling.

"We joined the protests at the time and offered our garden as an alternative."

Defra will use the videos for monitoring the badgers to see how successful the new setts are.