Badgers

Photo: California Department of Fish and Wildlife

It’s not likely you’ll come face-to-face with a badger; they’re normally shy, sly, and will usually quickly burrow safely underground when confronted with a human. But if corned and they feel a need to fight, badgers will quickly become an angry adversary.

A badger was killed by Joseph Field north of today’s Omaha, Nebraska, on July 30, 1804. Captain Clark wrote a short journal entry about it, but Meriwether Lewis, during the long winter of 1805-06 at Fort Clatsop, wrote a lengthy description of the American badger, Taxidea taxus.

The American badger belongs to the Family Mustelidae which consists of small carnivorous animals such as weasels, wolverines, skunks, and otters. They range from northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois through Wisconsin (of which it is the state animal) to southwestern Canada, and from the Mississippi River to the Rockies and the California coast.

Badgers feed on carrion and reptiles, including rattlesnakes, against whose fangs their tough hide is suitable armor. But their principal fare is the rodent including prairie dogs, gophers, and ground squirrels.