Amazing Facts About Badger

Badgers, particularly the Honey Badger, are reputed to have the worst attitude among all the animals. In fact, the Honey Badger is listed in the Guinness Book of World Record as “the most fearless animal in the world”. However, their ferociousness is just a protective mechanism and they prefer to escape unless confronted. Most of the time badgers are harmless, though some rogue may develop a taste for poultry bringing it into conflict with humans. Nowadays, badgers are protected, but earlier they were considered pests and carrier of rabies and were widely persecuted. They are expert diggers, digging up to a meter a minute and it is reported that they are capable of digging faster than a person digs with a shovel.  Badgers have an important place in Native American lore. Apart from many stories, they also believed that sighting of badger tracks is very auspicious. Badgers are also widely depicted in popular culture. You can find more information on this animal in the interesting and amazing facts given below.

Fast Facts 

Scientific Name: Eurasian Badger
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Superfamily: Musteloidea
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Melinae, Mellivorinae, Taxidiinae
Type: Mammals
Origin: Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas
Diet: Omnivorous
Size: about 35 inches including the tail
Weight: 9 to 11 kg (average)
Group Name: Clans or Cete
Lifespan: Up to 15 years
Habitat: Dry, open country
Sexual Maturity: Female: 12 to 15 months; Male: 2 years
Number Of Offspring: Two to three

Interesting And Fun Facts About Badger

• Badgers belong to the weasel family along with otters, stoats, weasels, polecats and pine martens. There are nine different species of badgers existing across four continents.
• They are very shy and retiring animals coming out to feed only at night. They live in family groups. The animal lives in underground homes called a “sett”. The “sett” has labyrinth tunnels constructed by the badger by excavating tons of earth.
• They use their five long non-retractable powerful claws for digging. Their short fat bodies and short legs make them a skillful digger.
• The male badger is called a “boar”, the female is called a “sow” and the baby is called a “cub”. Badger colonies are called “clans” or “cete”. Their dens are called “setts”.
• Some species of badgers are solitary while some live in clans of 2 to 15 individuals. They are very ferocious fighters and are capable of fighting off wolves and bears to protect their young and themselves.
• Badgers have an excellent sense of smell and they forage for food by sniffing the foods with their snouts. They also have an excellent sense of hearing but their eyesight is poor.
• They eat a wide variety of foods with earthworms being their main diet. They can eat up to 200 earthworms a day.
• During the winter months, badgers become less active, but they do not hibernate.
• Badgers start mating between February and October, but the fertilized egg starts developing only in December. This is known as delayed implantation. Eight weeks after implantation, between mid-January to mid-March, the cubs are born.  Badgers usually give birth to one to three cubs and they are born blind. The cubs spend the first 8 to 10 weeks underground and are weaned when they are about 12 weeks old. Females become sexually mature when they are about 12 to 15 months old and the males mature when they are about 2 years old.
• Badgers have a deadly bite as their lower jaw is articulated into the upper through a transverse condyle, which is firmly locked into a firm cavity of the cranium. This makes it impossible for the jaw to get dislocated and so the badger can hold its bite with the utmost tenacity. However, it cannot make the twisting movements that the jaw of other mammals can make.
• They can sprint at 25 to 30 km/hr but only for a short period.
• Depending on the species, their diet is diverse. The diet of the Eurasian badger consists mostly of earthworms, insects and grubs along with small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds as well as roots and fruits. The honey badger eats mostly honey, porcupines and sometimes venomous snakes.
• In the wild, it has been observed that badgers get intoxicated after eating rotting fruits.
• The European Badger, which is found throughout Europe and Asia are very sociable and their generation share the same territory and sett. It is believed that some of this badger’s family burrows are at least 100 years old.
• Though badgers are ground dwelling animals and do not climb trees, it has been found that the Ferret Badger occasionally sleeps in trees.