Badger

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

Badgers, occasionally referred to as brocks, are short-legged, heavy-set omnivores in the weasel biological family, Mustelidae. There are eight species of badger, in three subfamilies (see links in species list below): Melinae (badgers of Europe and Asia), 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 and Mustelidae, but recent genetic evidence indicates that these are actually members of the skunk family, placing them in the taxonomic family Mephitidae.

Badgers include the species in the genera Meles, Arctonyx, Taxidea and Mellivora species. Their 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 its jaw movement to hinging open and shut, or sliding from side to side without the twisting movement possible for the jaws of most mammals.

Etymology

The word badger originally applied to the European Badger (Meles meles). Its derivation 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.^[1] The Oxford English Dictionary, however, states that the most likely derivation is from badge + -ard, referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead.^[2] It is possibly related to the Romanian viezure ("badger"), a word of uncertain etymology, believed to be inherited from Dacian/Thracian and related to the Albanian vjedhullë ("badger", "thief") and vjeth ("to steal"), and the Slavic jazvrŭ ("hedgehog"; cf. Serbian javazac "badger").^[3][4] The less common name brock (Old English: brocc), (Scots: brock) is a Celtic loanword (cf. Gaelic broc and Welsh broch, from Proto-Celtic *brokko) meaning grey.^[2] The Proto-Germanic term was *þahsu- (cf. German Dachs, Dutch das, Norwegian svin-toks; Early Modern English: dasse), 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. A collective name suggested for a group of badgers is a cete,^[5] but badger colonies are more often called clans. Badger dens are called setts.

Classification

American badger.

The following list shows where the various badger species are placed in the Mustelidae classification.

• Family Mustelidae
  • Subfamily Melinae
    • Genus Arctonyx
      • Hog Badger, Arctonyx collaris
      • Arctonyx albogularis^[6]
      • Arctonyx hoevenii^[6]
    • Genus †Enhydritherium
      • Giant Florida Sea Otter, Enhydritherium terraenovae^[7]
    • Genus †Satherium
      • Satherium piscinarium (Hagerman's Otter)
    • Genus Melogale
      • Burmese Ferret-badger, Melogale personata
      • Javan Ferret-badger, Melogale orientalis
      • Chinese Ferret-badger, Melogale moschata
      • Bornean Ferret-badger, Melogale everetti
    • Genus Meles
      • Japanese Badger, Meles anakuma
      • Asian Badger, Meles leucurus
      • European Badger, Meles meles
  • Subfamily Mellivorinae
    • Honey Badger or Ratel, Mellivora capensis
  • Subfamily Taxideinae:
    • †Chamitataxus avitus
    • †Pliotaxidea nevadensis
    • †Pliotaxidea garberi
    • American Badger, Taxidea taxus
  • Subfamily Mustelinae
    • Includes: weasels, martens, polecats and allies
• Family Mephitidae
  • Genus Mydaus
    • Indonesian or Sunda Stink Badger (Teledu), Mydaus javanensis
    • Palawan Stink Badger, Mydaus marchei

Distribution

Badgers are found in much of North America, Ireland, and Great Britain^[8] and most of Europe as far as southern Scandinavia.^[9] They live as far east as Japan and China. The Javan Ferret badger lives in Indonesia.

Behavior

The behavior of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts which may be very extensive. Some are solitary, moving from home to home, while others are known to form clans. Clan size is variable from 2 to 15. Badgers can be fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs. Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals such as wolves and bears. Badgers can run or gallop at up to 25–30 kilometres per hour (16–19 mph) for short periods of time.

In North America, coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral.^[10] American badgers and coyotes have been seen hunting together, in a cooperative fashion.^[11]

Diet

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 roots and fruit.^[12][13] The honey badger of Africa consumes honey, porcupines and even venomous snakes (such as the puff adder). They will climb trees to gain access to honey from bees' nests. 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.

Badgers have been known to become intoxicated with alcohol after eating rotting fruit.^[14]

Badgers and humans

Eurasian badger.

Hunting badgers is common in many countries. Manipulating the badger population is prohibited in many European countries as badgers are listed in the Berne Convention, 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.

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.^[15]

As food

Although rarely eaten today in the United States or the United Kingdom,^[16] badger was once one of the main meat sources in the diets of Native Americans and white colonists.^{[17][18][19][20][21]} Badgers were also eaten in Britain during World War II and the 1950s.^[18]

In Russia, the consumption of badger meat is still widespread.^[22] Badger, along with dog and pork, shish kebabs are cited as a major source of trichinellosis outbreaks in the Altai region of Russia.^[22] Consumption of badger meat also occurs in other European countries such as Croatia, where it is used in a variation of the traditional dish of goulash.^[23] In contrast to Russia, there are no reports of trichinellosis related to the consumption of badger meat. This is credited to adequate preparation of the meat and good thermal processing of it.^[21]

In France, badger meat was used in the preparation of several dishes, such as Blarieur au sang and it was a relatively common ingredient in countryside cuisine.^[24] Badger meat was eaten in some parts of Spain until recently as well.^[25]

Badger remains a source of food in China, and the meat is freely available in market places.^[26][27] Other Asian countries also have traditions of consuming badger meat. In Japan, it is mentioned in folktales where it is regarded as a food for the humble.^[28]

Commercial use

Today badgers are commercially raised for their hair, which is harvested to make shaving brushes. 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. The hair is also used for paint brushes, and was used as a trim on Native American garments.^[29] It has been used in some instances as doll hair.

In popular culture

Badger, Rat, Mole, and Toad from The Wind in the Willows.

Badgers are popular in English fiction. Badger characters are featured in author Brian Jacques' Redwall series, most often falling under the title of Badger Lord or Badger Mother, and the 19th century poem "The Badger" by John Clare describes a badger hunt and badger-baiting. The character Frances in Russell Hoban's children's books is a badger. A badger god is featured in The Immortals by Tamora Pierce and "The Badger" is a comic book hero created by Mike Baron.

Many other stories featuring badgers as characters include Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mr. Tod (Tommy Brock), the Rupert Bear adventures by Mary Tourtel, Prince Caspian (Trufflehunter) by C. S. Lewis, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, T. H. White's The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn, Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl, Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood and Erin Hunter's – Warriors. In the Harry Potter books, the official mascot of the Hogwarts house of Hufflepuff is the badger, featuring this animal in the house's coat of arms as well as in the entire school's. The Hufflepuff common room has little underground tunnels leading to the dormitories, all of which have perfectly round doors, like barrel tops (much like a badger sett).

Badgers are also featured in films and animations: a flash video of The Badger Song shows a group doing calisthenics, while In Pokémon, Typhlosion and Linoone are based on badgers. Walt Disney's 1973 film Robin Hood, depicts the character of Friar Tuck by a badger.

In folklore, the badger in Japan is a wild creature that sometimes appears as a mischievous being.^[30] In Europe, Badgers were originally used to predict the length of winter,^[31] and the badger is the state animal of the U.S. state of Wisconsin.^[32] The badger is also the mascot of the University of Wisconsin's athletic teams. In 2007 suggestions that British forces released man-eating badgers near Basra, Iraq, to kill terrorists were refuted.^[33].^[34]

Notes

External links

• Badgerland - The Definitive On-Line Guide to Badgers in the UK
• WildlifeOnline - Natural History of Badgers
• Badger Facts