| Badgers look like short, shaggy, medium-sized dogs. They are powerful diggers. One, taken to a football game as a mascot, escaped and dug its way under the field. They dig afterand feed onground squirrels and pocket gophers, and also eat toads, frogs, birds, snakes, insects and insect grubs, wasps, bees, and worms. They sleep through most of the winter in a den, spending about 29 hours at a time in a state of torpor, rousing briefly, and then sleeping again. In torpor, which is not true hibernation, the Badger's heartbeat slows to about half the normal rate and its temperature drops. Humans are the Badgers' worst enemy, trapping and poisoning them, but they are now protected in some states and provinces.
Also known as:
North American Badger, Tlalcoyote, or Blaireau
Sexual Dimorphism:
Males are larger than females.
Length:
Range:
600-790 mm
Weight:
Range:
up to 12 kg in the wild, 18 kg in captivity
References:
Schreber, J.C.D., 1777. in Schreber's Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen, Wolfgang Walther, Erlangen, 7 volumes, 1774-1846; 3(26):pl. 142[1778], text, 3(26):520[1777].
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
|
Click to enlarge.
(40kb)
|
