Badger Facts

Badger Facts

1. The name badger is probably derived from the French word 'bécheur' meaning digger.  'Brock' probably originated in Scandinavia and is retained in the gaelic languages.

2. Badgers belong to the Mustelidae (weasel) family of carnivores. The weasel, otter, polecat, marten, mink, fisher, grison, sable, skunk and wolverine are all close relatives. 

3. Badgers are spread over all continents other than Australasia and Antarctica. The badger (meles meles) is the most widespread over Europe and Asia, but the others include the American badger, the Hog badger of East & South Asia, the Chinese ferret badger and the Indonesian & Palawan stink badger.

4. The male badger is called a ‘boar’, the female a ‘sow’ and their young ‘cubs’. After mating the fertilised egg is retained by the sow as a blastocyst until later it implants in her uterus. 

5. Badgers live underground in a sett. They prefer well drained soil - holes at different levels improve ventilation. 

6. Badgers dig flower pot shaped holes as latrines. These are often grouped along a hedge or path and can demarcate the edge of their territory. Bushes often spring up from the seeds of fruit they excrete. They will sometimes dedicate an area of their underground sett as a latrine. 

7. Badgers love to dig. They dig burrows for sleeping, hunting and giving birth.They may even change burrows every day! Digging burrows lends itself to an interesting hunting strategy. Badgers will check on their old burrows to see if any small animals have taken up residence since their last visit.

8. When threatened, badgers release a foul smelling musk to drive off enemies. In the face of danger , badgers also become very vocal; hissing and snarling.

9. Badgers are solitary (live alone) for most of the year . Adult males and females only get together to mate in late summer .

10. Thick reinforced skull to protect the brain when it bumps its head underground.

11. Long snout with bristles helps the badger sniff out worms. Its sense of smell is excellent.

12. Badgers recognize family members by smell rather than sight. Each badger has a smelly gland under its tail; it rubs its own smell onto the other badgers in the group so that all the badgers in the sett develop a 'family smell'. 

13. Badgers are territorial animals. This means they defend the area where they live from badgers that they don't know. Badgers that do not have the 'family smell' are usually chased away.

14. In the past people have killed badgers because they liked to eat the meat. People also used to kill them because they thought that certain parts of the body could be used to cure aches and pains. Different parts of the badger were supposed to be good for curing rheumatism, leprosy, arthritis or snakebite. Their fur made very good shaving brushes too.

15. European badgers live in groups - and each group occupies a maze of underground tunnels and rooms known as a sett. Badgers ‘inherit’ their homes from their ancestors, and some setts are thought to be at least 100 years old!

16. Badgers are nocturnal, which means they usually move around at night and sleep during the day.

17. Badgers are also omnivorous, which means they eat both plants and animals. They have a very varied diet, and are happy to chomp on anything from earthworms, insects, frogs and mice to berries, roots and fruit.

18. Badgers are usually around 90 cm long, and on average weigh 10-11 kg. They are very muscular and powerful for their size, and as they are the UK’s biggest land predator other wild animals will not usually attack them.

19. Unfortunately, their greatest enemy is man: Many badgers are killed by road traffic. 

20. They are also threatened by some farmers, who think they spread diseases to their livestock.

21. Badgers can live as long as 15 years. However, they rarely survive that long in the wild, with an average life span of just three years.

22. Male badgers are called boars, females are known as sows, and babies are cubs. ‘Brock’ is a very old English name for a badger.

23. Badger cubs are usually born in late January or February. They’ll spend their first two or three months underground, being looked after by their parents, and will only come to the sur face in the spring.

24. Badgers adore peanuts! If you want to encourage a local badger into your garden, leave out a handful of peanuts and see if they’re gone in the morning.

25. The honey badger likes sweet honey, but it does not have a sweet personality.

26. A member of the weasel family, this mammal was named the “most fearless animal in the world” by The Guinness Book of Records.

27. The honey badger is so fearless that it even eats porcupines and venomous snakes like puff adders and king cobras! They have also been known to take young cheetahs out of dens and to steal the food away from much larger animals like lions and leopards! 

28. While it uses it's tough personality to hunt all types of animals, this fearless predator sometimes eats melons and berries as well.