| Badger | |
|---|---|
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| AnAmerican badger | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Parvorder: | Mustelida |
| Superfamily: | Musteloidea |
| Groups included | |
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| Mustelid badger ranges Honey badger (Mellivora capensis) American badger (Taxidea taxus) European badger (Meles meles) Asian badger (Meles leucurus) Japanese badger (Meles anakuma) Chinese ferret-badger (Melogale moschata) Burmese ferret-badger (Melogale personata) Javan ferret-badger (Melogale orientalis) Bornean ferret-badger (Melogale everetti) | |
Badgers are medium-sized short-leggedomnivores in thesuperfamilyMusteloidea. Badgers are apolyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions forfossorial activity rather than by their ancestral relationships: Musteloidea contains several families, only two of which (the "weasel family"Mustelidae and the "skunk family"Mephitidae) include badgers; moreover, both of these families also include various other animals that are not badgers.
The fifteenspecies of mustelid badgers are grouped in four subfamilies: four species of Melinae (generaMeles andArctonyx) including theEuropean badger, five species of Helictidinae (genusMelogale) orferret-badger, thehoney badger or ratel Mellivorinae (genusMellivora), and theAmerican badger Taxideinae (genusTaxidea). Badgers include the mostbasal mustelids; the American badger is the most basal of all, followed successively by the ratel and the Melinae; the estimated split dates are about 17.8, 15.5 and 14.8 million years ago, respectively.[1]
The two species of Asiaticstink badgers of the genusMydaus were formerly included within Melinae (and thus Mustelidae), but more recent genetic evidence indicates these are actually members of theskunk family (Mephitidae).[2]
Badgermandibular condyles connect to long cavities in their skulls, which gives resistance to jaw dislocation and increases their bite grip strength.[3] This in turn limits jaw movement to hinging open and shut, or sliding from side to side, but it does not hamper the twisting movement possible for the jaws of mostmammals.
Badgers have rather short, wide bodies, with short legs for digging. They have elongated, weasel-like heads with small ears. Their tails vary in length depending on species; the stink badger has a very short tail, while the ferret-badger's tail can be 46–51 cm (18–20 in) long, depending on age. They have black faces with distinctive white markings, grey bodies with a light-coloured stripe from head to tail, and dark legs with light-coloured underbellies. They grow to around 90 cm (35 in) in length, including tail.
The European badger is one of the largest; the American badger, the hog badger, and the honey badger are generally a little smaller and lighter. Stink badgers are smaller still, and ferret-badgers are the smallest of all. They weigh around 9–11 kg (20–24 lb), while some Eurasian badgers weigh around 18 kg (40 lb).[4]
The word "badger", originally applied to theEuropean badger (Meles meles), comes from earlierbageard (16th century),[5] presumably referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead.[6] Similarly, a now archaic synonym wasbauson 'badger' (1375), a variant ofbausond 'striped, piebald', from Old Frenchbausant,baucent 'id.'.[7]
The less common namebrock (Old English:brocc), (Scots:brock) is aCelticloanword (cf.Gaelicbroc andWelshbroch, fromProto-Celtic*brokkos) meaning "grey".[6] TheProto-Germanic term was*þahsuz (cf.GermanDachs,Dutchdas,Norwegian svintoks;Early Modern Englishdasse), probably from thePIEroot*tek'- "to construct," so the badger would have been named after its digging ofsetts (tunnels); the Germanic term*þahsuz becametaxus ortaxō, -ōnis inLatinglosses, replacingmēlēs ("marten" or "badger"),[8] and from these words the commonRomance terms for the animal evolved (Italiantasso,Frenchtaisson—blaireau is now more common—Catalantoixó,Spanishtejón,Portuguesetexugo).[9]
A male European badger is a boar, a female is a sow, and a young badger is a cub. However, in North America the young are usually called kits, while the terms male and female are generally used for adults. A collective name suggested for a group of colonial badgers is a cete,[10] but badger colonies are more often called clans. A badger's home is called a sett.[11]
The following list shows where the various species with the common name of badger are placed in the Mustelidae and Mephitidae classifications. The list ispolyphyletic and the species commonly called badgers do not form a validclade.[12]
Badgers are found in much ofNorth America,Great Britain,[15]Ireland and most of the rest of Europe as far north as southernScandinavia.[16] They live as far east asJapan,Korea andChina. The Javan ferret-badger lives inIndonesia,[17] and the Bornean ferret-badger lives inMalaysia.[18] The honey badger is found in most ofsub-Saharan Africa, theArabian Desert, southernLevant,Turkmenistan,Pakistan andIndia.[19]
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The behaviour of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows calledsetts, which may be very extensive. Some are solitary, moving from home to home, while others are known to form clans called cetes.Cete size is variable from two to 15.
Badgers can run orgallop at 25–30 km/h (16–19 mph) for short periods of time. Some species, notably thehoney badger, can climb well. In March 2024, scientists released footage of a wildAsian badger climbing a tree to a height of 2.5 m in South Korea.[20] Badgers arenocturnal.[21]
In North America,coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral.[22] American badgers and coyotes have been seen hunting together in a cooperative fashion.[23]
The diet of the Eurasian badger consists largely ofearthworms (especiallyLumbricus terrestris),[24]insects,grubs, and the eggs and young of ground-nestingbirds. They also eat smallmammals,amphibians,reptiles andbirds, as well asroots andfruit.[25] In Britain, they are the main predator ofhedgehogs, which have demonstrably[26] lower populations in areas where badgers are numerous, so much so that hedgehog rescue societies do not release hedgehogs into known badger territories.[27] They are occasional predators of domestic chickens,[28] and are able to break into enclosures that a fox cannot. In southern Spain, badgers feed to a significant degree on rabbits.[29]
American badgers arefossorialcarnivores – i.e. they catch a significant proportion of their food underground, by digging. They can tunnel after ground-dwelling rodents at speed.
The honey badger of Africa consumeshoney,porcupines, and even venomoussnakes (such as thepuff adder); they climb trees to gain access to honey from bees' nests.
Badgers have been known to become intoxicated withalcohol after eating rotting fruit.[30]
Hunting badgers for sport has been common in many countries. TheDachshund (German for "badger hound")dog breed was bred for this purpose.Badger-baiting was formerly a popularblood sport.[31] Although badgers are normally quite docile, they fight fiercely when cornered. This led people to capture and box badgers and then wager on whether a dog could succeed in removing the badger from its refuge.[32] In England, opposition from naturalists led to its ban under theCruelty to Animals Act 1835 and theProtection of Badgers Act 1992 (c. 51)[33] made it an offence to kill, injure, or take a badger or to interfere with a sett unless under license from astatutory authority. TheHunting Act 2004 further bannedfox hunters from blocking setts during their chases.
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Badgers have been trapped commercially for their pelts, which have been used for centuries to makeshaving brushes,[31][32] a purpose to which it is particularly suited owing to its high water retention. Virtually all commercially available badger hair now comes frommainland China, though, which has farms for the purpose. The Chinese supply three grades of hair to domestic and foreign brush makers.[34] Village cooperatives are also licensed by the national government to hunt and process badgers to avoid their becoming a crop nuisance in rural northern China. The European badger is also used as trim for some traditionalScottish clothing. The American badger is also used forpaintbrushes[31] and as trim for someNative American garments.[35]
Controlling the badger population is prohibited in many European countries since badgers are listed in theBerne Convention, but they are not otherwise the subject of any international treaty or legislation. Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to controlrabies.[36]
Until the 1980s,badger culling in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the form of gassing, allegedly to control the spread ofbovine tuberculosis (bTB). Limited culling resumed in 1998 as part of a 10-year randomised trial cull, which was considered byJohn Krebs and others to show that culling was ineffective. Some groups called for a selective cull,[37] whilst others favoured a programme of vaccination. As of 2013[update] Wales and Northern Ireland are currently conducting field trials of a badger vaccination programme.[38] In 2012 the government authorised a limited cull[39] led by theDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. However it was later deferred and a wide range of reasons given.[40] In August 2013 a full culling programme began, whereby it was expected that about 5,000 badgers would be killed over six weeks in WestSomerset andGloucestershire using a mixture of controlled shooting and free shooting (some badgers were to be trapped in cages first). The cull caused many protests, with emotional, economic and scientific reasons being cited. The badger is considered an iconic species of the British countryside and it has been claimed byshadow ministers that "The government's own figures show it will cost more than it saves...", and Lord Krebs, who led the Randomised Badger Culling Trial in the 1990s, said the two pilots "will not yield any useful information".[38]
When protecting woodlands from deer and rabbit, installing fences in badger territory can be problematic. Because badgers are persistent and strong, if fences are placed across their "runs"—established foraging and travel paths—they may well dig through or under, damaging the fence and leaving openings that rabbits can get through. Ideally, badger runs should be identified before fence construction begins. The gateways are constructed in stages over time to ensure that badgers are using the manmade openings instead of damaging the new fence: starting with leaving a cut opening in the fence at ground level, later laying a floor (threshold), later still framing the opening, and eventually hanging a small free-swinging door that is heavy enough that rabbits don't seem to learn how to push them open. The recommended door size is 18 by 25 cm and weighs about 1.1 kg.[41][42]
With a special license, badger fencing and one-way gates may be installed to exclude resident badgers from an area being developed.[11]
Badgers have been used in traditional medicine in Europe, Asia and Africa.[43]
Although rarely eaten today in the United States or the United Kingdom,[44] badgers were once a primary meat source for the diets of Native Americans and European colonists.[45][46][47][48][49] Badgers were also eaten in Britain duringWorld War II and the 1950s.[46] In some areas of Russia, the consumption of badger meat is still widespread.[50]Shish kebabs made from badger, along with dog meat and pork, are a major source oftrichinosis outbreaks in theAltai Region of Russia.[50] InCroatia badger meat is rarely eaten, but when it is, it is usually smoked, dried, or served ingoulash.[51] In France, badger meat was used in the preparation of several dishes, such asBlaireau au sang, and it was a relatively common ingredient in countryside cuisine.[52] Badger meat was eaten in some parts of Spain until recently.[when?][53]
Badgers are sometimes kept as pets.[54][55] Keeping a badger as a pet or offering one for sale is an offence in the United Kingdom under the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act.[56]
In Europe during the medieval period, accounts of badgers inbestiaries described badgers as working together to dig holes under mountains. They were said to lie down at the entrance of the hole holding a stick in their mouths, while other badgers piled dirt on their bellies. Two badgers would then take hold of the stick in the badger's mouth, and drag the animal loaded with dirt away, almost in the fashion of a wagon.[57] The moralizing component of bestiaries often took precedence over their function as natural history texts, and this description of badgers most likely reflects an allegorical exemplar rather than what everyday people in the Middle Ages might or might not have believed about how badgers behave in the wild.[58]
The 19th-century poem "The Badger" byJohn Clare describes a badger hunt andbadger-baiting. The character Frances inRussell Hoban's children's books, beginning withBedtime for Frances (1948–1970), is depicted as a badger. Trufflehunter is a heroic badger in theChronicles of Narnia bookPrince Caspian (1951) byC. S. Lewis.
Badger characters are featured in authorBrian Jacques'Redwall series (1986–2011), they are depicted as feared warriors most often falling under the title of Badger Lord or Badger Mother. A badger character is featured inThe Immortals (1992–1996) byTamora Pierce and "The Badger" is a comic book hero created byMike Baron. The badger is the emblem of theHufflepuff house of theHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in theJ. K. Rowling'sHarry Potter book series (1997–2007), it is chosen as such because the badger is an animal that is often underestimated, because it lives quietly until attacked, but which, when provoked, can fight off animals much larger than itself, which resembles the Hufflepuff house in several ways.
Many other stories featuring badgers as characters includeKenneth Grahame's children's novelThe Wind in the Willows (1908),Beatrix Potter'sThe Tale of Mr. Tod (1912; featuring badger Tommy Brock), theRupert Bear adventures by Mary Tourtel (appearing since 1920),T. H. White's Arthurian fantasy novelsThe Once and Future King (1958, written 1938–41) andThe Book of Merlyn (1977),Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970) byRoald Dahl,Richard Adams'sWatership Down (1972),Colin Dann'sThe Animals of Farthing Wood (1979), andErin Hunter'sWarriors (appearing since 2003). In the historic novelIncident at Hawk's Hill (1971) byAllan W. Eckert a badger is one of the main characters.
Badgers are also featured in films and animations: aflash video calledBadgers shows a cete doingcalisthenics. The 1973Disney animated filmRobin Hood depicts the character ofFriar Tuck as a badger. In theDoctor Snuggles series, Dennis the handyman was a badger.
In Europe, badgers were traditionally used to predict the length ofwinter.[59]
The badger is the state animal of the U.S. state ofWisconsin,[60] though this is a reference to the state's early miners rather than the animal itself, andBucky Badger is the mascot of the athletic teams at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. The badger is also the official mascot ofBrock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada;The University of Sussex, England; and St Aidan's College at theUniversity of Durham.
In 2007, the appearance of honey badgers around the British base atBasra, Iraq, fueled rumours among the locals that British forces deliberately released "man-eating" and "bear-like" badgers to spread panic. These allegations were denied by the British army and the director of Basra's veterinary hospital.[61]
On 28 August 2013, thePC video gameShelter was released by developersMight and Delight in which players control a mother badger protecting her cubs.[62]
Aninternet meme (Badger, badger, badger) appearedviral in the early years ofYouTube, later initiating other versions of the animation.
As a sub-series of theSonic the Hedgehog franchise,Sticks the Badger is one of the main characters of theSonic Boom series.[63]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Badger",Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 188Badger predation of hedgehogs was high in the study site and the main cause of death
badgers and hogs don't mix we'd never consider releasing hogs into ... an active badger territory
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