Eurasian Badger
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| Eurasian Badger | ||||||||||||||
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| Meles meles |
The Eurasian Badger, Meles meles, is is indigenous to most of Europe (excluding northern Scandinavia, Iceland, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Cyprus) and many parts of Asia, from about 15° to 65° North, and from about 10° West to 135° East. It is particularly abundant in Britain and Ireland.
It is a member of the Mustelidae family, and so is related to the stoats, otters, weasels, minks and other badgers. Eurasian Badgers are the only species classified in the genus Meles.
European Badgers can be readily identified by their characteristic black-and-white striped face and white-tipped ears.
Thet are omnivorous; most of their diet consists of earthworms, although they also eat insects, beetles, small mammals, lizards, frogs, eggs, young birds, berries, roots, bulbs, nuts, fruit, and other plant matter.
They are also said to dig up the nests of wasps in order to eat the larvae.
In urban areas, they may scavenge food from bins and gardens.
It is around 90 cm long (including a 20 cm tail) and weighs 10 kg on average. Weights can vary enormously however. In the northern parts of the species' range, badgers put on fat in the autumn to help them through the winter months. In parts of Russia, badgers may weigh as much as 32 kg in the autumn. Their fat reserves enable them to spend up to 6 months asleep in their setts over the long, freezing Russian winter. The general hue of its fur is grey above and black on the under parts with a distinctive black and white striped face.
Eurasian Badgers are nocturnal and spend the daytime, resting in an extensive network of tunnels called the sett. Setts enable them to survive through very hot or cold weather.
They are territorial, but can be found in groups (called clans) of up to 12. Each clan has a dominant male and female which are the only members of the clan to reproduce. A female badger can display delayed implantation - after mating at any time of the year, she keeps the fertilised eggs in suspended development, and they begin developing at the appropriate breeding time. Badgers have a gestation period of 7-8 weeks and give birth to 1-6 offspring. Males are called boars and females sows, the young are cubs. Badgers live for three to 12 years (up to 16 in captivity). If they survive their first year, the most common cause of death is by road traffic. In habits it may be taken as typical of the subfamily.
Accepted subspecies include Meles meles meles (Western Europe), Meles meles marianensis (Spain and Portugal), Meles meles leptorynchus (Russia), Meles meles leucurus (China and Tibet), and Meles meles anaguma (Japan).
Fossil remains of the badger have been found in England in deposits of Pleistocene age.
Badgers are prone to Baylisascaris infestations.
Badger Baiting
In the "sport" of badger baiting, a badger, usually tethered, is attacked by a succession of dogs. When the badger is no longer able to fight, it is killed. Betting is usually also involved. Badger baiting has been practiced since at least the middle ages in Europe.
United Kingdom
Badger-baiting was formerly popular throughout Great Britain, until prohibited by Act of Parliament in 1835, together with bear-baiting and bull-baiting. Badger digging was made illegal in 1973 under the Badger Act. However an estimated 10,000 badgers are still killed each year by badger baiting, digging, shooting, and other illegal means.
Amid concern over bovine tuberculosis (TB), test carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture in the early 1970s showed that TB was more common in badgers than in other species. In 1973 they sponsored the Badger Act, allowing licenses to be issued for the culling of badgers. However there are various other theories concerning the transmission of TB to cattle, and badger culling remains a contentious issue in the UK. The most recent legislation is the Protection of Badgers Act of 1992.
Badgers are popular with the general public, if not with farmers, and societies exist to protect the species. In the United Kingdom, European Badgers are protected by law. The Lancashire Badger Group and other groups have organized for the conservation of these animals. Their most serious threat is automobile traffic, which kills about 50,000 badgers a year in Britain. In 2004, there were between 250,000 and 300,000 badgers in the wild in Britain.
References
- Wildlifeonline - Natural History of the European Badger (http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/european_badger.html).
- Lancaster Badger Group (http://www.geocities.com/lancashirebadgergroup/).
- The Badger Site (http://www.garethgriffiths.co.uk/badger/eu_badger.html).
- Science & Nature: Animals (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/189.shtml), BBC.
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