The black and white markings on a badger's face go lengthwise from its nose to the beginning of its back. (See more badger pictures).

Physical Appearance

American badgers are among the largest members of the mustelid or weasel family.  They are a "flattened" and stocky animal with short, powerful legs used for digging. They can be identified by distinctive black and white stripes on their head, their stout and wide body and large front claws. Badgers are about 60 to 70cm (23 to 30 inches) long, with males being larger than females.  On average, a female badger weighs 7kg (15.5 pounds), whereas a large male can be up to 11kg (25 pounds).  Overall, a badger is generally a bit larger than a raccoon.

Distinguishing from Other AnimaLS

Though badgers have a characteristic appearance, it is not always easy to identify them with just a quick look, especially if their face isn't seen. Their short, wide body shape, and unique way of walking (some people think they look like they "waddle" or "flow" across the ground) can be a big aid in identification. In fact, they often stand so low to the ground that their short black legs can be almost hidden by a shaggy "skirt" of fur. Raccoons are often the most similar to a badger, but other animals can be confused as well. Click here for a table comparing badgers to some other common animals.

A badger's wide and "flattened" body shape is one of their most distinctive features. (See more badger pictures).

A badger's tail is relatively long and furry, but it is the same colour as the body and tends to be inconspicuous. (See more badger pictures).

A badger's tail

A badger actually has a fairly long and fluffy tail. But because it is the same colour as the rest of the body, and often held closely to the body, it isn't always very conspicuous. However, the tail can still be a very helpful feature to differentiate a badger from other animals. Looking at the tail also becomes very important in trying to identify a badger killed on the road. We can get extremely important data from those unfortunate badgers so recognizing a dead badger on the road is very helpful. Remember that a raccoon has a noticeably striped tail, a skunk has a very fluffy tail, and opossums and muskrats have naked rat-like tails.

Videos of badgers

Here are a few videos from the YouTube archive. One of the videos is provided here and all are linked to below. Additional pictures of badgers (from the Ontario and British Columbia badger projects) are available on the right hand side of the page.

• Badger digging a burrow
• Badger in Yellowstone
• Summer of Badgers
• Missouri Badgers

A badger may have several dozen burrows in its territory, most of them along the edge of a field. (More pictures of burrows along the right-hand side)

Badger Burrows

Digging is very important in the life of a badger.  They catch much of their prey by digging, and use underground burrows for shelter and raising their young.  So it's not surprising that so many of a badger's physical features – like long claws, strong legs, and a stout body shape – are so well suited to a digging lifestyle. Badgers spend much of the daytime sleeping in a burrow, and they may have several dozen burrows throughout their entire home range, sometimes returning to one they have stayed at before, and sometimes digging a new one.

What does a Badger Burrow look like?

Many other animals also dig burrows, so recognizing the unique features of the work of a badger is very important to studying them. Though confident identification can not always be make, a typical badger burrow is wider than tall, with a large fan of excavated dirt at the entrance.

• About 25 centimers (10 inches) wide and 20 centimeters (8 inches) tall
• Lots of excavated dirt when fresh
• Usually along an edge of some sort especially where there is a slope
• Claw marks are often found on the inside walls

There can be a considerable overlap between the appearences of badger and groundhog burrows. When groundhog burrows are on slopes (such as banks beside roads) they can be particularly similar to badger burrows. The main difference is that groundhog burrows always tend to be smaller (and usually more rounded) and the dirt pile, while it can still be very large, usually forms a bit of a mound rather than spilling all the way down the slope. Where badgers and groundhogs coexist the situation becomes more conufusing, as badgers will enlarge groundhog burrows when they are hunting them and groundhogs will colonize old badger burrows. Foxes and coyotes also dig dens, but theirs are taller than badger burrows (to accomodate a different body shape) and usually bigger as well.

A typical badger burrow is wider than it is tall (slightly oval) with a large pile of excavated dirt. (More pictures of burrows along the right-hand side)

A badger's long claws and "breast-stroke" method of digging often leave deep scratches on the inside wall of a burrow. (More pictures of burrows along the right-hand side)

Reports of burrows in farmlands are extremely important to learning how badgers relate to agriculture. (More pictures along the right-hand side)

Importance of burrows for research

Because badgers in Ontario are so rare and elusive, finding a burrow is usually the best confirmation that a badger has been in an area. Beside telling us what sort of habitat badgers might prefer, burrows are also the best way to collect our most important research tool: hair. Badger hairs can often be found in the entrance of fresh burrows, and we can use specially made "hair-snag" devices to collect hair if a badger returns. The DNA fingerprint from hair analysis allows us to identify individual badgers and learn about how many there are and how they move through the landscape. Reports of burrows are the most important sightings we receive and every one adds to our understanding of badgers in Ontario.

Badger Tracks

The most distinctive feature of a badger's track are the long front claws. However these claws, and the fact that they have 5 toes (like skunks and raccoons) rather than 4 toes (like dogs and cats) do not always show up in a print. When the claws are not visible, a badger track looks a bit like a cross between a large cat's track and a small dog's (a bit like a fox, in fact). Here are some links to great online resources for badger tracks, and tracking in general.

• The Tracker's Field Guide
• Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America
• The Complete Tracker
• Field Guide to Tracking Animals in Snow
• An Adventure in Tracking

A badger's long front claws are distinctive when seen, however they don't always register in the track

A fresh badger track, showing the similarity between its pad and that of both a cat and dog

Map of badger distribution north of Mexico (Newhouse and Kinley 1999)

Badgers in North America

Badgers occur across much of North America and into northern Mexico. They are most common in the western part of the continent and reach the eastern end of their range here in Ontario. There are four subspecies that are separated by slight physiological differences. The jacksoni subspecies is found here in Ontario and there are also two other subspecies in Canada: taxus (which is found on the prairies) and the jeffersoni subspecies (which is endangered in BC). The berlandieri subspecies is the most southern. Interestingly, badgers are fairly common in neighboring Michigan and the degree of relationship and possible connections between these two populations are currently being investigated.

Badgers and their habitat in Ontario

Badgers in Ontario are mostly restricted to the most southwestern portion of the province. Norfolk and surrounding counties are where most recent sightings have come from, though badgers can likely occur anywhere south of Toronto. Dispersing juveniles in particular can move extremely far from where they were born and can turn up in surprising locations. There have also been reports of badgers in the Bruce-Grey region, as well as in the northwestern part close to the Minnesota border.

Where they are found, badgers appear to prefer sandy soils and open habitat, such as meadows, prairies, and the edges of fields and forests. In Ontario, we have no large unbroken areas of open prairie, though the grassy and weedy field edges can be common in certain agricultural areas. While badgers do seem to be able to make use of that sort of habitat, the relationship between badgers and the agricultural lands that dominate southern Ontario is poorly understood, and filling in those knowledge gaps is one of the primary objectives of this project.

A general idea of where badgers might be found in Ontario (click for more information and pictures of badger habitat in Ontario)

The grassy edges of fields are typical of the habitat available for badgers in Ontario. (click for more information and pictures of badger habitat in Ontario)

A badger in BC with two ground squirrels it just caught. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

As a top predator in southern Ontario, badgers have a very important role in the food web. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

What do badgers eat?

Badgers are mostly carnivorous, like other members of the weasel family.  They feed mainly on small mammals such as groundhogs (also known as woodchucks or gophers), chipmunks, squirrels, voles, and mice.  However they are fairly opportunistic in their choice of prey and may eat small reptiles and amphibians, bird's eggs, insects, and likely carrion (such as road-kill). They don't seem to have the taste for garbage that raccoons and skunks do and tend to stay farther from populated areas, though individual badgers will likely eat human food if it is accessible.

Badgers are well known for their ability to hunt burrowing mammals, particularly in the West, where colonial ground squirrels are quite common. They can dig incredibly fast in pursuit of prey and often enlarge the burrows of the animals they hunt faster than their prey can escape. They have even been observed plugging one entrance while digging into an alternate entrance to corner a prey animal!

reproduction

Badgers typically mate in the late summer and early fall.  However, because of a process called "delayed implantation", the embryo does not start to develop until sometime in the winter.  The young (called kits) are born in a burrow in the early spring and the litter size is between 1 and 5.  The young are born blind and helpless, and spend the first month or two of their lives inside the burrow.  By the end of the summer, the young are independent of their mother (the males have no part in the rearing of young) and usually disperse out on their own.  Though badgers can live longer in captivity, a wild badger is quite old at 10.

Two young Ontario badgers near Simcoe try to squeeze out of a burrow at the same time. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

Though badgers do move around during the day, the great majority of their activity occurs at night. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

An illustration of the territory of a female badger in one summer in Ontario, an area of about 6000 acres. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

Badgers don't hibernate, though they will stay inside their burrows for extended periods, particularly when it is very cold outside. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

behaviour

Badgers are mostly nocturnal, preferring to do most of their hunting and moving around at night. Though they can occasionally be seen during the day as well, particularly where human activity is low, they usually spend the day sleeping underground in a burrow.

They are a very nomadic animal, and may spend just a few days and nights in an area before moving on. So instead of having one central location for a den like many other animals, they can have several dozen throughout their home range. Sometimes they return to an old burrow, and other times they will simply dig a new one. The size of their territories is largely dependant on the available food and can therefore be quite variable. Territories have been recorded as large as 300 square kilometers, though most are much smaller.  In general, males have larger home ranges than females, and a male's home range may overlap with that of more than one female.

Despite their relatively slow speed above ground, they can cover great distances when they want to. One particular badger in BC was found to travel almost 14 kilometers in 4 hours! Other research projects have shown them to commonly travel 10 kilometers a night, though usually their nightly movements are much less than that.  Surprisingly, badgers are excellent swimmers, and they have been observed crossing even large rivers with ease.

They don't actually hibernate in the winter, but will often go into periods of reduced activity where they may stay in a burrow for several days, especially during very cold spells. How active they remain in southern Ontario's relatively mild winters is unknown.

Predators and threats

Adult badgers are relatively free from natural predators in Ontario, though coyotes and even large farm dogs may target young and very old badgers. While badgers are much more intelligent around roads than raccoons or skunks, vehicles are probably the biggest cause of premature death for badgers. Badgers are still trapped for their fur in some parts of North America, but it is not particularly valuable or in demand (shaving brushes were one of its main uses). In the West, animals like wolves and cougars are significant predators of badgers, and deliberate persecution by humans can be a major issue.

Badgers have quite a reputation for being aggressive and even dangerous. While there is some truth to these tales, there is much more exaggeration.  A groundhog is about the biggest animal a badger would attack for food and badgers are usually quite shy and prefer not to be seen.  But like any animal, a badger will defend itself if it feels its life is in danger or if it is protecting its young.  Badgers cannot run as fast as other larger animals and have little hope of even outrunning a quickly jogging person.   If they cannot get underground quickly enough, they rely on their exceptionally bold and fearless nature to deter large threats, making themselves seem too dangerous to be worth the risk. However, even a medium-sized dog poses a threat that a badger will do its best to get away from and people have little to fear provided they respect a badger's space.

Vehicles are likely the primary cause of premature death for badgers in Ontario

Shaving brushes provided the main demand for badger fur and trapping

This well-circulated picture from the internet shows a defensive badger doing an excellent job of looking threatening. (Click for more links on badger ecology)

The wolverine is the largest of our mustelids, and shares some physical characteristics with the badger.

The weasel family

American Badgers (Taxidea taxus subspecies "jacksoni") are members of the weasel (mustelid) family. They are the second largest members of this group in Canada, which includes native animals like mink, marten, fisher, weasels (long-tailed, short-tailed, and least), river otter, and the largest of our mustelids, the wolverine. They are all carnivores and most of them produce a "musky" smell from specialized glands, which they use for marking their territories and advertising their presence in an area.

European Badger

The European badger shares its name as well as many features with our badgers. It also has a black-and-white face and grayish body, and also burrows and spends much of its time underground. However there are some major differences between these two badgers as well. The European badgers have a differently shaped head and eat more invertebrates than ours do (earthworms are one of their favourite foods!). They are also much more sociable than our solitary badgers, and often live in small groups or clans.

It might have a black-and-white face, but the European badger is different in many ways to our badgers in North America