Badger Animal

Badger animal looks somewhat like a small bear. Badgers have a flat elongated body covered with long gray hairs and short legs. One of the badger’s remarkable feature is the long and strong claws on its front feet. Perfect diggers, badgers are capable of digging with all four feet.

Badger animal has loose fitting skin, which does not allow other animals to hold it securely. Badgers’ excellent senses of hearing and smell serve them in locating rodents in their underground dens. With their eyes closed, badgers rely on smell and hearing when they are underground digging towards their prey. Badgers strive to maintain their claws in a good condition and sharpen them by scratching on trees. If badgers find an empty burrow left from prairie dogs or ground squirrels, they are most likely to inhabit it.

Badger animals are usually nocturnal and come out at night to look for ground squirrels, mice, rats, gophers, lizards, snakes, birds’ eggs and other prey. Badgers can dig very quickly  and skillfully to get a prey hiding in a burrow.  Badgers also have been known to be active during the day time in quiet areas.

Adult badger males measure around 90 cm in length and weigh about 11.5 kg on avarage. Adult females are shorter, and weigh about 10 kg. The weight of badger animal tends to vary during the year, being at the lowest in spring and the greatest at the beginning of winter.

Badger animals are territorial creatures. Most badger territories are about 3 or 4 square miles and their size may vary due to the availability of food. Territories may sometimes overlap, especially in habitats with sandy or porous soils. Badgers prefer open country, for example pastures and rangelands. Badger animals are rarely found in areas with many trees. The badger is widely distributed in the United States.

Though they resemble bears, badger animals do not hibernate like bears during winter. However they do sleep for extended periods of time in northern areas during cold weather periods. Badgers can stay underground for weeks at a time. They don’t store food and thus have to occasionally come out to hunt.