The Badger
European, is stocky and can grow up to 70 cm long (90 cm including the tail) and weigh about 20 kilograms. It is recognizable by the black longitudinal stripes on its muzzle. It is plantigrade (which is why it was formerly classified with the Ursidae).
Nocturnal and omnivorous
(insects, rodents, tubers, mushrooms, and very rarely eggs and young rabbits), it does not have a good reputation among farmers and hunters. In fact,**plants make up a much larger portion of its diet than in other mustelids, and the benefits it provides by preying on a wide variety of mollusks, rodents, amphibians, snakes, and insects (it ravages bumblebee and wasp nests) far outweigh any damage it may cause.**An adult badger can consume nearly 100 kilograms of earthworms annually.
He also really likes frogs and vipers, whose venom has no effect on him. During times of food scarcity, he occasionally takes a few ears of corn from the fields, but this is very rare and does not extend to other crops such as wheat, oats, or grapevines.
It is a burrowing animal, capable of building extensive family burrows even in the hardest soil. It doesn’t mind settling into existing burrows (such as those of foxes), although, conversely, it is more often the case that animals less well-suited to such work take over the badger’s burrow.
A single burrow can be inhabited for decades or even centuries, with modifications made from generation to generation. A family clan of badgers (a clan consists of a group of two to five badgers plus one to three young) occupies the main burrow.
This burrow consists of several tunnels that can extend down to a depth of 3 or 4 meters; These tunnels lead to chambers where males, females, and young spend the day quietly sleeping or resting on bedding made of leaves, moss, and dried grass, which is changed frequently.
Badger dens are often found on elevated terrain (hills, cliffs, slopes, etc.). They also prefer areas near trees and berry-bearing shrubs, such as elderberry, which they feast on when the season comes.
The spread of these trees owes much to animals: they disperse the seeds in their droppings, which promotes germination. The badger is a master burrower; to dig the tunnels in its den, it can move up to 40 metric tons of earth.**This species has disappeared from much of its natural range due to hunting, trapping, and the degradation or destruction of its habitats. It is also a species particularly vulnerable to roadkill 2 (animals killed, run over, or injured by road traffic). It has been protected since 1992 in the United Kingdom, where it is also the subject of a conservation breeding program and reintroduction efforts.In Belgium, where the badger is protected, badger crossings (specialized wildlife underpasses, which are actually simple concrete pipes similar to sewer lines) run under roads to help badgers move about without being run over or injured by vehicles.
This effort helped halt the decline of certain populations.**