Badger

For other uses, see Badger (disambiguation).

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.

Etymology

The derivation of the word badger is uncertain. It possibly comes from the French word blaireau: "corn-hoarder", or from the French word bêcheur (digger), introduced during William the Conqueror's reign. The Oxford English Dictionary, however, states that the most likely derivation is from badge + -ard, in reference to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead.

An older term for "badger" is brock (Old English brocc), a Celtic loanword (Gaelic broc, Welsh broch, from Proto-Celtic *brokko) meaning grey. 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. Clan size is variable from 2 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. Badgers can run or gallop at up to 25-30 km per hour for short periods of time.

Diet

American badger.

American Badgers are fossorial carnivores. 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 bees' nests.

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

File:Badger delete1.jpg

Eurasian badger.

Badgers and humans

Further information: Eurasian badger and badgers and bovine tuberculosis

Hunting badgers is common in many countries. 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.

The blood sport of badger-baiting was outlawed in the United Kingdom by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 as well as the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 which makes it a serious offence to kill, injure or take a badger, or to damage or interfere with a sett unless a licence is obtained from a statutory authority. An exemption that allowed 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.

Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies. Until the 1980s, gassing was also practised in the UK to control the spread of bovine TB.

Scandinavian custom is to put eggshells or styrofoam in one's boots when walking through badger territory, as badgers are believed to bite down until they can hear a crunch. 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. Badger hair is used to make quality shaving brushes and paint brushes and was used as a trim on Native American garments. It has even been used in some instances as doll hair.

The badger is the state animal of Wisconsin. Likenesses of badgers appear through the Wisconsin State Capitol, and a badger appears on the head of the statue of Wisconsin atop the building. The official mascot of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is Buckingham U. Badger, AKA Bucky Badger.

Badgers in the Human Diet

Although uncommon to be eaten today in the United States, badgers were one of the main meat sources in the native American diet, specially among hunting tribes, which used to hunt them for fur and its consumption is widespread around the world. The use of badger meat, however, appears to be returning in the form of an exotic meat and a delicacy, sold in some Hispanic markets in California.

In Russia, however, the consumption of badger meat is widespread, and in the Novosibirsk region, it is easy to find shish kebabs made from badger meat being sold on the streets, due to the fact that shish kebab made with badger meat is tasty, exotic, and most importantly, cheap. This tendency towards the consumption of badger meat is also seem in many other Eastern European countries, such as Croatia, where badger meat is used in the traditional dish of Goulash.

Also, badger meat was until recently eaten in parts of Spain , and as everywhere its fur was used for shaving brushes.

Interestingly the badger is a main source of food in China and badger meat is freely available in the marketplaces.

Badger milk is also a food product obtained from badgers being used nowadays mainly by athletes and phisiculturists as a calcium supplement and is found with a certain effort in German markets.

Badger products

Today badgers are commercially raised for their hair, which is harvested to make shaving brushes. Because badgers are a protected species in North America and most of Europe, virtually all commercial badger hair comes from mainland China, which supplies knots of hair in three grades to brush makers in both China and Europe. In rural Northern China, badgers multiply to the point of becoming a crop nuisance, and village cooperatives are licensed by the national government to hunt badgers and process their hair.

In fiction and popular culture

Badgers are popular in English fiction. Many badger characters are featured in author Brian Jacques' Redwall series, most often falling under the title of Badger Lord or Badger Mother. Other stories featuring badgers include Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mr. Tod ("Tommy Brock"), C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian ("Trufflehunter"), The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn by T. H. White, Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl, and The Animals of Farthing Wood.

In the Harry Potter series, one of the four "houses" of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, is symbolised by a badger. The character Frances in Russell Hoban's series of children's books is a badger. Badgers also appear prominently in two volumes of Erin Hunter's Warriors: The New Prophecy series, and a badger god is featured as a major character and spirit guide for the lead character in The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce.

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 which dies at the end.

Badgers are the primary subject of a popular flash animation simply called "badgers".

Urban legends

• British forces were said to have released man-eating badgers in the vicinity of Basra, Iraq, following the 2003 coalition invasion. 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.

External links

• BadgerBadger
• Badgerland - The Definitive On-Line Guide to Badgers in the UK
• IberiaNature: Spanish badgers
• Steve Jackson's Badger Pages
• The Badger Trust (formerly the National Federation of Badger Groups)
• The Virtual Badger Sett
• WildlifeOnline - Natural History of Badgers