BADGER --

HOG BADGER

SUMMARY - the cull is still going on in 2021 and it is assumed 140,000 will be killed.

UPDATED:   10 May, 2015 --  Since the Tories have won with a majority the anti-hunting law, which the Labour introduced, will be cancelled.

UPDATED:  6 April,2015 -- The government has now extended the cull of badgers and it will be even held over wider area. Is it really the badger guilty of spreading TB or is it just and excuse to have a hunt of which the "Elite" are very found of? Many times in the papers experts advised to inject the cattle against TB and it would safe the badgers' life. Is TB really so widespread to hunt the badgers to extinction?  What about rats  ? Do they carry TB?  Rats are far more widespread and have easier access to the cattle than badger

Badgers are widespread mammals over Europe and Asia. It has the typical characteristics of burrowing animals. A short powerful neck, short forelegs and feet specially grown for digging with long front claws which are retractable. The badger walks on its toes and it is known as digitigrade and therefore has a rolling gait. The toes of the teledu, badger living in Southeast Asia are joined up to the claws. It gives extra strength.

                                         Habitat   
Badgers prefer for their setts wooded hillsides. The reason is that the soil is well drained and easier to dig. Their burrows can be very extensive.  The tunnels are a collective effort from many generations. Badgers occupy a tunnel for centuries. Several badgers live in the main burrow but also use the outlying setts which are within their territory.

If one group of badgers is large there is an obvious path between to be seen. Along there are small little pits close to it which serve as lavatories.

By nature the badger is shy but losing habitats they also slowly moving into build-up areas. They start burrowing under garages, rubbish damps and along railway lines which is all a real shame. They raid dustbins or vegetable gardens and take tit bits from animal lovers. Surprisingly, it had been found that 'town’ badgers moving back to the countryside.

Badgers living in the north or north-east of Europe have to survive the harsh winter. They find themselves being snowed in for month. They adapted themselves by sleeping and living off their fat they built-up during the autumn. This is not really hibernation like other animals because they don’t reduce their body temperature or metabolic rate.

                                            Diet   
Most of their diet is vegetable matter such as fruit, seed, mushrooms and roots.  They also eat a huge number of earthworms, slugs, beetles, insects and snails which makes them useful in Mother Nature chain keeping the slugs, snails and insects down. In the spring and summer they eat young ground-nesting birds, migrating moles, and the frogs and toads are wiped to death to remove the poisonous slime.

The ordinary badger has very strong jaws. Their heavy carnassial teeth can crash bones and slice flesh. The molars are broad, flat and multi-cusped for grinding.  The honey badger has only four molars.

HOG BADGER  
WHICH CAN MOVE ITS SNOUT

They hunt by smell with their sensitive long nose. The snout of the ferret badger and the hog badger is movable and they use it like a trunk to sniff out unfortunate victims.  The Eurasian Badger has a liking for young rabbits. When they find a nest they dig straight down and catch the litter. Some badgers even found the ability to uncurl hedgehog.

HONEY BADGER

The honey badger work in partnership with a bird called honeyguide. The honeyguide finds the nest of wasps and bees but is not strong enough to break it open. When the bird found one it calls for the honey badger which breaks it open and pulls out the honeycomb The honey badger then shares the food of the pupae and larvae with the honey guide.

BREEDING

The mating season is different from species to species. However, the behaviour is all the same. The male chases the female until she is either is too tired run any more or lets him to mate anyway. There coupling can last up to one hour. The male holding the female by the scruff of her neck or ear.  Sometime the female screams aloud and it sounds very human.

The fertilized eggs delays the embed in the womb to make sure the young badgers emergences from the setts at the right time in the following year. The perfect timing is when the weather is getting warmer and the food is plentiful.

Eurasian badgers are born between February and March. When they are born their eyes are closed and open after four to five weeks.  The mother suckles them for two and a half months. After that they follow their mother and learn all about how to find or hunting for food.

DEFENCE

Eurasian badgers are so well armed that they hardly be bothered by predators.  The badger has an anal gland which is used to mark its territory. The honey badger has an especially obnoxious substance which even can shock a leopard and make it run. The ferret badger, teledu and Palawan stink badger managed to  perfect it. They turn around and squired the vile liquid straight into the face of the predator.

Badgers have a tough skin but the honey badger’s skin is specially equipped to be immune of bees' and wasps' stings, dog bites or spines of porcupines. The most amazing thing is that the honey badger’s skin hangs so loose that it can turn around within its own skin and deliver a serious bite to the predators.

HUNTED BY MAN

Although they can cause damage to cornfields, fruit gardens and vegetable plots but they don’t as a whole attack livestock. They are accused of carrying TB and at the moment there is a great fight and argument going on in the UK between farmers and animals protection groups for calling a cull.  In Britain the badgers are a protected species as a whole but the cruel ‘sport’ of badgers baiting with dogs still carries on.

Badger’s territory is also threatened by buildings and motorways.

The fur trade is still dealing with American Badger furs but the Eurasian badger fur is not fashionable any more.

In Malaysia they still trap badgers for its meat and they are very careful about removing the anal glands for not to contaminate the meat with the stink.

AMERICAN BADGER