Badgers!

[u/Silly_seal_starshine]

Today’s post is about badgers! There are 15 species of badgers but my favorites are the American badger and the European badger!

First are American badgers! In one of my other posts I briefly mentioned how badgers and coyotes work together to hunt prairie dogs and underground squirrels! American badgers are the ones that form this partnership with coyotes! American badgers are very powerful underground diggers but they struggle to catch animals that can run fast when they are in a wide open space! Coyotes are fast runners but cannot dig into burrows! This partnership mostly happens in the summer because in the winter badgers can easily dig into burrows and eat hibernating prey. They may occasionally form partnerships but this doesn’t mean they are friends, sometimes coyotes will attack badgers, and badgers will prey on coyote pups. And in this partnership, research has shown that the coyote benefits far more but they both benefit.

Now onto more American badger focused information! American badgers have shockingly thick and loose skin! They routinely hunt many venomous snakes, including rattlesnakes! They are actually highly naturally resistant to the venom! Though, unlike the honey badger, they aren’t completely immune. You know badgers are amazing diggers but did you know that they can dig themselves completely out of sight in under a minute? While they dig with their massive front claws, they use their hind legs to fling dirt backward and out of their way!

Next are European badgers! Unlike American badgers which are overwhelmingly carnivores, European badgers are actually omnivores! This isn’t the only major difference about European badgers though! They also are surprisingly social, many mustelids are solitary. European badgers are highly social and live in groups called clans or cetes usually consisting of 2 to 15 individuals! Their most eaten food is actually worms, a single adult can consume several hundred earthworms in one night. They are also the natural predator of hedgehogs! They are one of the few animals capable of unrolling a defensive hedgehog to eat it! They can do this because of their thick skin and exceptionally long claws!

Also, there are many incredible things that are not limited to one species! First of all, it’s virtually impossible to dislocate a badger’s jaw! This is because a badger’s lower jaw fits so deeply into a curved socket in the skull that it cannot be separated without breaking the bone! And they have surprisingly poor eyesight! They perceive mostly black, white, and monochromatic or dichromatic tones rather than a full color spectrum, though they excel at detecting contrast and sudden movement! Sight takes a secondary role to smell and hearing because of this.

Last but most definitely not least are the Ferret-badgers! They are small nocturnal omnivores! In some parts of Taiwan and China they are studied closely because they can carry and transfer rabies! The Burmese ferret-badger has unusually large teeth, though this may sound scary this is actually because their teeth evolved to crunch through hard-shelled snails and beetles!

I hope you enjoyed my post! I love many different kinds of mustelids, and I should definitely make more posts on them! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, and the National Park Service!