American Badger
| American Badgers | |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Mustelidae |
| Genus: | Taxidea Waterhouse, 1839 |
| Species: | T. taxus |
| Binomial name | |
| Taxidea taxus (Schreber, 1778) |
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The American Badger, Taxidea taxus, is a North American Badger, somewhat similar in appearance to the European Badger.
It is found in the western and central United States, northern Mexico and central Canada. They are found throughout southwestern British Columbia. This animal prefers dry open areas with deep soils that are easy to dig, such as prairie regions.
In Mexico, this animal is sometimes called "tlacoyote". The Spanish word for badger is "tejón", but in Mexico this word is also used to describe the coati. This can lead to confusion, for there are both coatis and badgers in Mexico.
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Taxonomy
The American badger is a member of the Mustelidae, a diverse family of carnivorous mammals which also includes the weasel, ferret, and wolverine. The American Badger belongs to one of three sub-families of badgers, the other two being the Eurasian Badger and the Honey Badger. The American Badger's closest relative is the prehistoric Chamitataxus.
Recognized sub-species include: Taxidea taxus jacksoni, found in the western Great Lakes region; Taxidea taxus jeffersoni, on the west coast of Canada and the US; and Taxidea taxus berlandieri, in the south-western US and in northern Mexico.[2][3]
Description
The American Badger has most of the general characteristics common to badgers; stocky and low-slung with short, powerful legs, they are identifiable by their huge foreclaws (measuring up to 5 cm in length) and distinctive head markings. Measuring generally between 60 to 75 cm (23.6 to 29.5 inches) in length, males of the species are a little bit larger than females (with an average weight of roughly 7 kg (15.5 pounds) for females and up to almost 9 kg (19.8 pounds) for males). Northern subspecies such as T. t. jeffersonii are heavier than the southern subspecies. In the fall, when food is plentiful, adult male badgers can exceed 11.5 kg (25.3 pounds).[4]
Excluding the head, the American Badger is covered with a grizzled, silvery coat of coarse hair or fur. The American Badger's triangular face shows a distinctive black and white pattern, with brown or blackish "badges" marking the cheeks and a white stripe extending from the nose to the base of the head. In the subspecies T. t. berlandieri, the white head stripe extends the full length of the body, to the base of the tail.[5]
Behavior
The American Badger is a fossorial carnivore. It preys predominantly on pocket gophers (Geomyidae), ground squirrels (Spermophilus), moles (Talpidae), marmots (Marmota), prairie dogs (Cynomys), pika, woodrats (Neotoma), kangaroo rats (Dipodomys), deer mice (Peromyscus), and voles (Microtus), often digging to pursue prey into their dens, and sometimes plugging tunnel entrances with objects.[6] 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, skunks (Mephitis and Spilogale), insects, including bees and honeycomb and some plant foods such as maize (Zea mais), peas, green beans, mushrooms and other fungi, and sunflower seeds (Helianthus).
They are mainly active at night, but may be active during the day. They do not hibernate, but become less active in winter. A badger may spend much of the winter in cycles of torpor that last around 29 hours. They do emerge from their setts on warmer days.
Badgers sometimes use abandoned burrows of other animals like foxes or animals slightly smaller or bigger. Badgers are normally solitary animals for most of the year, but it is thought that in breeding season they expand their territories to actively seek out mates. Males may breed with more than one female. Mating occurs in the summer, but implantation is delayed and the young are born in an underground burrow during late winter. Litters consist of one to five offspring.
American badgers will sometimes form a symbiotic relationship with coyotes. Because coyotes are not very effective at digging rodents out of their burrows, they will chase the animals while they are above ground. Badgers on the other hand are not fast runners, but are well-adapted to digging. When hunting together, they effectively leave little escape for prey in the area.[7]
Further Information
American badgers have few natural predators other than humans. The numbers of these animals has declined due to persecution by farmers and the extermination of many of their prey in agricultural areas. In May 2000, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listed both the American Badger jacksoni subspecies (Taxidea taxus jacksoni) and the jeffersonii subspecies (Taxidea taxus jeffersonii) as an endangered species in Canada.
References
- ↑ Reid, F. & Helgen, K. (2008). Taxidea taxus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 21 March 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
- ↑ "Taxidea". http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/mammalia/carnivora/mustelidae/taxidea/index.html. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ↑ Long, Charles A. (1972-06-13). "Taxidea taxus". Journal of Mammalogy 26. http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-026-01-0001.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ↑ Feldhamer, George A.; Bruce Carlyle Thompson, Joseph A. Chapman (2003). Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation. JHU Press. p. 683. ISBN 0801874165. http://books.google.com/?id=-xQalfqP7BcC&pg=PA683.
- ↑ American Society of Mammalogists Staff; Smithsonian Institution Staff (1999). The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. UBC Press. p. 179. ISBN 0774807628. http://books.google.com/?id=qNFgzIPGuSUC&pg=PA179.
- ↑ Michener, Gail R. "Hunting techniques and tool use by North American badgers preying on Richardson's ground squirrels". Journal of mammalogy, 2004, vol. 85, no5, pp. 1019-1027.
- ↑ Badger-Coyote Associations
- Shefferly, N. 1999. "Taxidea taxus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 15, 2007 at University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Whitaker, John O. (1980-10-12). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 745. ISBN 0394507622.
- Long, Charles A. (1972-11). "Taxonomic Revision of the North American Badger, Taxidea taxus". Journal of Mammalogy (Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 53, No. 4) 53 (4): 725–759. doi:10.2307/1379211. http://jstor.org/stable/1379211.
External links
- Ontario Badgers (information about the American Badger and the research of their endangered Ontario population)
- Miller, Ira. "Montana Animal Field Guide". http://fwp.mt.gov/fieldguide/detail_AMAJF04010.aspx. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
- Streube, Donald. "American Badger, Idaho Museum of Natural History". http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/mammal/Carn/muste/amba/ambafrm.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
- "American Badger, The University of Texas at El Paso". The University of Texas at El Paso. http://museum.utep.edu/educate/learninglinks/badger_LL.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
- Steve Jackson's badger page
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