What do Badger look like?

Answer 1

Honey badgers are similar in size and build to the European badger, Meles meles. They are heavily built, with a broad head, small eyes, no external ears, and a relatively blunt snout, the female smaller than the male. Broad and powerful the legs are short, but the forelegs are well-developed, equipped with strong claws like curved knives which can be up to 40mm long and broad feet, 3.5 cm long with sharp edges, back-claws straighter, 1.5 cm long without sharp edges. The head-and-body length ranges from 60 to 102 cm, plus a tail of 16 to 30 cm. The animal's height at the shoulder can be from 23 to 30 cm. Adult body weights vary from 5.5 to 14 kg. There is a considerable difference between the sizes of the male and female, with males sometimes weighing up to twice as much as females. The weight range for females is 5 to 10 kg, while males range from 9 to 14 kg. The body colouration is a striking combination of silvery grey or whitish upperparts (from the top of the head across the back to the base of the tail), and black or dark brown sides and underparts. The grey upperparts (or mantle) are often whiter on the crown and around the edges, such that there is a white stripe separating the mantle from the black body (see photo). The mantle is often darker in older animals.

Answer 2

Length: Adults are usually between 70 and 100 cm (2 - 3 1/2 ft) long.

Weight: Weight varies according to season, with adults usually between 6 and 7 kg (13 - 15 lbs) in summer and 12 to 14 kg (26 - 31 lbs) in winter. The average adult weight in the autumn is about 12 kg, while that for spring is circa 9 kg (20 lbs). Badger Colors: Typically, mature badgers have a silvery-grey to black body and tail, with a paler stomach (the white abdominal fur being very thin) and dark paws. Badgers are easily identified by their characteristic black-and-white striped face (mask) and white margins to their ears. Variations to this color scheme, although rare, include white (including albino and semi-albino), melanistic (very dark) and erythristic (ginger-brown and ginger-red) badgers. The pelage has three phases correlated with the molt phase: a thick winter coat, thinner summer coat and a light autumn coat. There is a single molt each year, beginning in the spring with shedding of the underfur and guard hairs, which proceeds from the back of the neck and shoulders backwards to the flanks; summer heralds pelage re-growth, beginning with the guard hairs followed by the underfur, proceeding back-to-front. The new coat is complete by the autumn. See the Related Link below for pictures of badgers. The common badger (also called the European badger) is up to 90 cm (35 in) long, and the American badger is about 60 cm (24 in) long.
an image of Eurasian Badger (European indigenous mammal, Latin: Meles meles) (image: Dachs.jpg)