badger

 

name for several related members of the weasel family. Most badgers are large, nocturnal, burrowing animals, with broad, heavy bodies, long snouts, large, sharp claws, and long, grizzled fur. The Old World badger, Meles meles, is found in Europe and in Asia N of the Himalayas; it is about 3 ft (90 cm) long, with a 4-in. (10-cm) tail, and weighs about 30 lb (13.6 kg). Its unusual coloring, light above and dark below, is unlike that of most mammals but is found in some other members of the family. The head is white, with a conspicuous black stripe on each side. European badgers live, often in groups, in large burrows called sets, which they usually dig in dry slopes in woods. They emerge at night to forage for food; their diet is mainly earthworms but also includes rodents, young rabbits, insects, and plant matter. The American badger, Taxidea taxus, is about 2 ft (60 cm) long, with a 5-in. (13-cm) tail and weighs 12 to 24 lb (5.4–10.8 kg); it is very short-legged, which gives its body a flattened appearance. The fur is yellowish gray and the face black, with a white stripe over the forehead and around each eye. It is found in open grasslands and deserts of W and central North America, from N Alberta to N Mexico. It feeds largely on rodents and carrion; an extremely swift burrower, it pursues ground squirrels and prairie dogs into their holes, and may construct its own living quarters 30 ft (9.1 m) below ground level. American badgers are solitary and mostly nocturnal; in the extreme north they sleep through the winter. Several kinds of badger are found in SE Asia; these are classified in a number of genera. Badgers are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, family Mustelidae.

Badgers
American Badger
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Mustelidae Subfamily: Melinae Mellivorinae Taxidiinae
Genera
Arctonyx  Melogale  Meles  Mellivora  Taxidea

Badger is the common name for any animal of three subfamilies, which belong to the family Mustelidae: the same mammal family as the ferrets, the weasels, the otters, and several other types of carnivore. There are eight species of badger, in three subfamilies: Melinae (badgers of Europe and Asia – see links in species list below), Mellivorinae (the Ratel or honey badger), and Taxideinae (the American badger). The Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included in the Melinae, but recent genetic evidence indicates that these are actually Old World relatives of the skunks (family Mephitidae). Typical badgers (Meles, Arctonyx, Taxidea and Mellivora species) are short-legged and heavy-set. The lower jaw is articulated to the upper by means of a transverse condyle firmly locked into a long cavity of the cranium, so that dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible. This enables the badger to maintain its hold with the utmost tenacity, but limits the jaw movement to hinging open and shut or sliding from side to side; it does not allow yawing as in most other mammals (including humans).

Name

The name badger is possibly derived from the word badge because of the marks on the head, or it may be identical with the term noted below: the French word blaireau being used in both senses. An older term for "badger" is brock (Old English brocc), a Celtic loanword (Gaelic broc, Welsh broch, from Proto-Celtic *brokko). The Proto-Germanic term was *þahsu- (German Dachs), probably from the PIE root *tek'- "to construct," so that the badger would have been named after its digging of setts (tunnels).

A male badger is a boar, a female a sow and a young badger is a cub. The collective name for a group of badgers is a clan, colony, or cete.

Classification

• Family Mustelidae
  • (Subfamily Lutrinae: otters)
  • Subfamily Melinae
    • Hog Badger, Arctonyx collaris
    • Burmese Ferret Badger, Melogale personata
    • Oriental Ferret Badger, Melogale orientalis
    • Chinese Ferret Badger, Melogale moschata
    • Everett's Ferret Badger, Melogale everetti
    • Eurasian Badger, Meles meles
  • Subfamily Mellivorinae
    • Ratel or Honey Badger, Mellivora capensis
  • Subfamily Taxideinae:
    • †Chamitataxus avitus
    • †Pliotaxidea nevadensis
    • †Pliotaxidea garberi
    • American Badger, Taxidea taxus
  • (Subfamily Mustelinae: weasels, martens, polecats and allies)
• Family Mephitidae
  • • Indonesian or Javan Stink Badger (Teledu), Mydaus javanensis
    • Palawan Stink Badger, Mydaus marchei

Behavior

The behavior of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts. Some are solitary, moving from home to home, while others are known to form clans of up to 15. Badgers are fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs. Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals such as wolves, coyotes and bears.^{[citation needed]}

Diet

North American Badgers are carnivorous and prey predominantly on pocket gophers (Geomyidae), ground squirrels (Spermophilus), moles (Talpidae), marmots (Marmota), prairie dogs (Cynomys), woodrats (Neotoma), kangaroo rats (Dipodomys), deer mice (Peromyscus), and voles (Microtus). They also prey on ground-nesting birds (such as bank swallow or sand martin Riparia riparia and burrowing owl Athene cunicularia), lizards, amphibians, carrion, fish, hibernating skunks (Mephitis and Spilogale), insects, including bees and honeycomb, and some plant foods, such as corn (maize, Zea mais), peas, green beans, fungi, and sunflower seeds (Helianthus). Unlike many carnivores that stalk their prey in open country, badgers catch most of their food by digging. They can tunnel after ground dwelling rodents with amazing speed. They have been known to cache food.

The honey badger consumes honey, porcupines and even venomous snakes (such as the puff adder). They will climb trees to gain access to honey from bee's nests.

Badgers have been known to attack the young of certain canines.^{[citation needed]}

The diet of the Eurasian badger^[1] consists largely of earthworms, insects, and grubs. They also eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds as well as cereals, roots and fruit.

Badgers and humans

Many badger setts in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies. Until the 1980sGassing was also practiced in the UK to control the spread of bovine TB. Scandinavian custom is to put eggshells in your boots when walking through badger territory, as badgers are believed to bite down until they can hear a crunch. Hunting badgers is common in many countries, either as a perceived pest, or for sport. Roaming badgers may not be killed, nor their setts interfered with, except on licence from the government. Ostentatively badgers are protected in the UK by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. (Otherwise an exemption allowing fox hunters to loosely block setts to prevent chased foxes escaping into them was brought to an end with the passage of the Hunting Act 2004). Meddling in badger population is prevented as badgers are listed in the Berne Convention (Appendix III), but they are not otherwise the subject of any international treaty or legislation.

See Eurasian badger for more details about badgers and bovine tuberculosis.

Badger-baiting is a blood sport outlawed in the United Kingdom by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 as well as the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.

The Dachshund dog breed has a history with badgers; "dachs" is the German word for badger, and dachshunds were originally bred to be badger hounds.[1]

Badgers are popular in English language fiction. Many badger characters are featured in author Brian Jacques' Redwall series, most often falling under the title of Badger Lord or Badger Mother. One such badger contains 'Brock' in his name. Other stories featuring badgers include The Boy Who Talked to Badgers (1975 movie), The Tale of Mr. Tod, The Wind in the Willows, The Once and Future King, The Animals of Farthing Wood, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Book of Merlyn, and The Chronicles of Narnia. In the Harry Potter series, one of the four Houses, Hufflepuff, is symbolized by a badger. The character Frances in Russell Hoban's series of children's books is a badger. They also appear prominently in two volumes of Erin Hunter's Warriors: The New Prophecy series.

The most prominent poem on the badger is from the Romantic period's John Clare. "Badger" describes a badger hunt, complete with badger-baiting, and treats the badger as a noble creature who dies at the end.

Badger hair is used to make quality shaving brushes.

Urban legends

British forces were said to have released man-eating badgers in the vicinity of Basra, Iraq following the 2003 coalition invasion.^[2] This allegation has been denied by the British, and local scientists agree that the animals, Ratels, also known as Honey Badgers, are native to the area. ^[3]

References

External links

• The Badger Trust (formerly the National Federation of Badger Groups)
• Badgerland - The Definitive On-Line Guide to Badgers (Meles meles) in the UK
• Steve Jackson's Badger Pages
• The Virtual Badger Sett (Taxidea, North American Badgers)
• Badgers in the Netherlands
• Badgers in Spain
• Official Athletic Department Site for the University of Wisconsin "Badgers"
• Aigas Field Centre badger ecology page
• BBC News report of court case in Shropshire about a man killing a badger injured by his dogs.
• Live infrared badger web cam

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