Badger
Badger | |
---|---|
An American badger | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | |
Order: | |
Suborder: | |
Superfamily: | |
Family: | |
Subfamily: | |
Genera | |
| |
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 short-legged
The fifteen species of mustelid badgers are grouped in four subfamilies: four species of Melinae (genera Meles and Arctonyx) including the European badger, five species of Helictidinae (genus Melogale) or ferret-badger, the honey badger or ratel Mellivorinae (genus Mellivora), and the American badger Taxideinae (genus Taxidea). Badgers include the most basal 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 Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included within Melinae (and thus Mustelidae), but more recent genetic evidence indicates these are actually members of the skunk family (Mephitidae).[2]
Badger
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]
Etymology
The word "badger", originally applied to the European badger (Meles meles), comes from earlier bageard (16th century),[5] presumably referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead.[6] Similarly, a now archaic synonym was bauson 'badger' (1375), a variant of bausond 'striped, piebald', from Old French bausant, baucent 'id.'.[7]
The less common name brock (
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]
Classification
The following list shows where the various species with the common name of badger are placed in the Mustelidae and Mephitidae classifications. The list is
- Family Mustelidae
- Subfamily Melinae[13][14][1]
- Genus Arctonyx
- Northern hog badger, Arctonyx albogularis
- Greater hog badger, Arctonyx collaris
- Sumatran hog badger, Arctonyx hoevenii
- Genus Meles
- Japanese badger, Meles anakuma
- Asian badger, Meles leucurus
- European badger, Meles meles
- Caucasian badger, Meles canescens
- Genus
- Subfamily
- Genus Melogale
- Burmese ferret-badger, Melogale personata
- Javan ferret-badger, Melogale orientalis
- Chinese ferret-badger, Melogale moschata
- Formosan ferret-badger, Melogale subaurantiaca
- Bornean ferret-badger, Melogale everetti
- Vietnam ferret-badger, Melogale cucphuongensis
- Genus
- Subfamily Mellivorinae
- Honey badger, Mellivora capensis
- Subfamily Taxidiinae:
- †Chamitataxus avitus
- †Pliotaxidea nevadensis
- †Pliotaxidea garberi
- American badger, Taxidea taxus
- †
- Subfamily Melinae[13][14][1]
- Family Mephitidae
- Subfamily Mydainae
- Genus Mydaus
- Indonesian or Sunda stink badger (teledu), Mydaus javanensis
- Palawan stink badger, Mydaus marchei
- Genus
- Subfamily Mydainae
Distribution
Badgers are found in much of North America, Great Britain,[15] Ireland and most of the rest of Europe as far north as southern Scandinavia.[16] They live as far east as Japan, Korea and China. The Javan ferret-badger lives in Indonesia,[17] and the Bornean ferret-badger lives in Malaysia.[18] The honey badger is found in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Desert, southern Levant, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India.[19]
Behaviour
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2016) |
The behaviour 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 called cetes. Cete size is variable from two to 15.
Badgers can run or gallop at 25–30 km/h (16–19 mph) for short periods of time. Some species, notably the honey badger, can climb well. In March 2024, scientists released footage of a wild Asian badger climbing a tree to a height of 2.5 m in South Korea.[20] Badgers are nocturnal.[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]
Diet
The diet of the Eurasian badger consists largely of earthworms (especially Lumbricus terrestris),[24] insects, grubs, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. They also eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds, as well as roots and fruit.[25] In Britain, they are the main predator of hedgehogs, 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 are fossorial carnivores – 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 consumes
Badgers have been known to become intoxicated with alcohol after eating rotting fruit.[30]
Relation with humans
Hunting
Hunting badgers for sport has been common in many countries. The
Badgers have been trapped commercially for their pelts, which have been used for centuries to make
Culling
Controlling the badger population is prohibited in many European countries since badgers are listed in the
Until the 1980s,
Traditional medicine
Badgers have been used in traditional medicine in Europe, Asia and Africa.[41]
Food
Although rarely eaten today in the United States or the United Kingdom,
Pets
Badgers are sometimes kept as pets.[52][53] 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.[54]
In popular culture
In Europe during the medieval period, accounts of badgers in bestiaries 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.[55] 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.[56]
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, beginning with Bedtime for Frances (1948–1970), is depicted as a badger. Trufflehunter is a heroic badger in the Chronicles of Narnia book Prince Caspian (1951) by C. S. Lewis.
Badger characters are featured in author
Many other stories featuring badgers as characters include
Badgers are also featured in films and animations: a
In Europe, badgers were traditionally used to predict the length of winter.[57]
The badger is the state animal of the U.S. state of
In 2007, the appearance of honey badgers around the British base at
On 28 August 2013, the PC video game Shelter was released by developers Might and Delight in which players control a mother badger protecting her cubs.[60]
An internet meme (Badger, badger, badger) appeared viral in the early years of YouTube, later initiating other versions of the animation.
As a sub-series of the
References
- ^ PMID 28472434.
- ISBN 978-0-521-73586-5.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Badger", Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 188 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ "Badger Pages: Photos of and facts about the badgers of the world". Badgers.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ C. T. Onions, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966), 68.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8. Archived from the originalon 25 June 2006. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edn., s.v. "badger" (Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
- ^ Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (1979) [1932]. Dictionnaire étimologique de la langue latine (in French) (4 ed.). Paris: Klincksieck.
- ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1989) [1979]. Avviamento all'etimologia italiana (in Italian) (6 ed.). Milano: Mondadori.
- ^ Hints and Things: collective nouns Retrieved 28 June 2010.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Explore the Database". www.mammaldiversity.org. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ PMID 18275614.
- ^ PMID 21477367.
- JSTOR 20764515.
- ^ Brink van den, F.H. (1967). A Field Guide to the Mammals of Britain and Europe. Collins, London.
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of data deficient
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of data deficient.
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Elves-Powell, Joshua; Dobson, Chad R.; Axmacher, Jan C.; Durant, Sarah M. "Records of climbing by Asian Badger Meles leucurus in the Republic of Korea". Small Carnivore Conservation. 62: e62002.
- ^ "Badger". Kansas University. Ksr.ku.edu. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ Kiliaan HP, Mamo C, Paquet PC (1991). "A Coyote, Canis latrans, and Badger, Taxidea taxus, interaction near Cypress Hills Provincial Park, Alberta". Canadian Field-Naturalist. 105: 122–12.
- .
- .
- ^ "Eurasian badger (Meles meles) ecology: DIET". Woodchester Park Badger Research. Central Science Laboratory. csl.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- S2CID 82793575. Archived from the original(PDF) on 7 April 2014.
Badger 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". Snufflelodge.org.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ^ "Forums". River Cottage. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- hdl:10261/50745.
- ^ "Drunk badger blocks German road". AFP. 8 July 2009. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009.
- ^ a b c Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 227 ,
- ^ a b Chisholm (1911).
- ^ UK Government. "Protection of Badgers Act 1992". Retrieved 7 October 2015.
- ^ "Bristle Styles and Additional Information". Em's Place. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ^ "ADW: Taxidea taxus: Information". Animal Diversity Web. Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ The European badger (Meles meles) Archived 1 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine. badger.org.uk
- ^ Badger cull is necessary to stop them suffering, say vets. The Times (27 April 2013). Retrieved on 2 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Badger cull begins in Somerset in attempt to tackle TB". BBC. 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ Carrington, D. (14 December 2011). "Badger culling will go ahead in 2012". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ Carrington, D. (23 October 2012). "Badger cull postponed until 2013". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ Elves-Powell, Joshua; Neo, Xavier; Park, Sehee; Woodroffe, Rosie; Lee, Hang; Axmacher, Jan C.; Durant, Sarah M. "A preliminary assessment of the wildlife trade in badgers (Meles leucurus and Arctonyx spp.) (Carnivora: Mustelidae) in South Korea". Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. 16 (2): 204–214.
- ^ "Wonderland: The Man Who Eats Badgers and Other Strange Tales – TV pick of the day for January 23rd, 2008". Library.digiguide.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2009.
- ^ "Primary Source documents". Bcheritage.ca. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2009.
- ^ a b "How To Bake A Badger". Globalchefs.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
- ^ "Summary of Trichinellosis Outbreaks (2001–2004)". Trichinella.org. Archived from the original on 19 February 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2009.
- Hrčak.
- ^ Florijančić, Tihomir; Marinculić, Albert; Antunović, Boris & Bošković, Ivica (2006). "A survey of the current status of sylvatic trichinellosis in the Republic of Croatia" (PDF). Veterinarski Arhiv. 76 (7): S1–S8.
- ^ a b "Summary of Trichinellosis Outbreaks (2001–2005) – Russia". www.trichinella.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- Hrčak- Portal of scientific journals of Croatia.
- ISBN 978-2-87901-549-1. Archived from the originalon 7 December 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
- ^ "Badgers in Spain". IberiaNature. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-915266-07-4.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- ^ "Protection-of-Badgers Act 1992, Section 4". legislation.gov.uk. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ "Medieval Bestiary: Badger". bestiary.ca.
- ^ "Schrader, A Medieval Bestiary, 1986" "Schrader, A Medieval Bestiary, 1986".
- ISBN 0-8117-0029-1
- ^ EEK! – Critter Corner – The Badger. Dnr.wi.gov. Retrieved on 7 November 2011.
- ^ "British blamed for Basra badgers". BBC News. 12 July 2007. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ^ Higginbotham, James (29 May 2014). "SEGA Introduces All-New Character Sticks to Sonic Boom Franchise". Pure Nintendo.
External links
- Badgerland – The Definitive On-Line Guide to Badgers in the UK
- Durham County Badger Group Archived 2 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- WildlifeOnline – Natural History of Badgers
- Badger Facts
- www.ontariobadgers.org – Information about American Badgers
- Local dutch badger group
- Badger-Coyote Associations Archived 19 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- YouTube video of examples of Badger scratching trees
- Texts on Wikisource:
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. III (9th ed.). 1878. p. 227. .
- "The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
- "Cornhill Magazine.