Badger

See also: Badger (homonymy)

The badger ( Meles mix ) is largest Espèce of Mustélidé of Europe. It is squat and can reach 70  cm length (90  cm with the tail) for a score of kilograms. It is recognizable with the black longitudinal bands which it carries on the muzzle.

The badger of Eurasia is in almost all Europe in the south of the polar circle. The female, generally of the same size than the male, is called blairelle. The small ones are the blaireautins.

It is Plantigrade (what had made it classify formerly with the Ursidé S).

Night and omnivorous (Insect S, Rodent S, Tuber S, Mushroom S, very seldom eggs and young Rabbit S), it does not have good reputation near the farmers and of the hunters. In fact, the plants constitute a part much more significant of its food than at the others mustélidés and the services which it renders while destroying a mollusc crowd, rodents and insects (it devastates the nests of bumblebee S and Guêpe S) carry it largely on the damage which it can cause.

It is the only species of the kind Meles .

Burrows

It is an animal digger, able to build vast family galleries in the hardest grounds. But he does not scorn to settle in existing burrows (Renard S), although it is more often, contrary, animals less better equipped for this work which invest the burrow of the badger.

The same burrow can be inhabited tens, even of the hundreds of years, altered from generation to generation. A family clan of badgers (a clan is made of a group of 2 to 5 badgers more than one to 3 young people) occupies the principal burrow.

This burrow is composed of several galleries which can go down up to 3 or 4  m of depth, they lead to " chambres" where male, female and young people quietly spend the day to sleep or to rest on litters made up of sheets, foam and grasses dried which are frequently changed.

The burrow of the badgers is generally often on the level of reliefs (ridges, cliff, slope…)

They appreciate also the proximity of the trees and bushes with bays, such as the Sureau of which they regale the come time (the proliferation of these trees must much with the animals, they reject seeds in their excrements of them - what does not prevent germination, quite to the contrary).

The badger is a large digger, to dig the galleries of its burrow he can stir up up to 40 tons of ground.

Trees scratched until a height of 1,40  m can also testify to its presence. Certain burrows are so important that there are 30 to 40 entries, in this case the surface occupied by the burrow can reach 2  000  m ². One speaks then about " donjon" or of " forteresse". On average the size of its territory covers 40 to 50 hectares.

Reproduction and lifestyle

At the 2 years age the badgers are in age to reproduce. The time of the reproduction proceeds mainly January in March. A female can couple itself with several males of the same clan and can be receptive at other periods of the year. The fertilized ovule remains on standby for 10 months before being fixed in the uterus (differed ovo-establishment). The period of gestation strictly speaking lasts only approximately two months. The small ones will be born the following year in February - March.

The blaireautins will be born in general about the months from February-March. The range from 2 to 7 blaireautins will remain with the mother in the burrow, because like much the small ones of mammals to their birth, they are not able to move and do not have sufficient peeling to protect itself from the cold. They have the closed eyes. They will start to leave the family burrow towards the age one month and half, and will be nursed for 3 months.

The badger not being very prolific, it suffered in the Seventies of the campaigns of gazage of burrows supposed to fight against the rage. The policy of the time was of gazer the foxes to stop the progression of the rage. However if that forever prevented the virus from progressing each year (until the appearance of a vaccine dispersed in the form of soft foods), on the other hand the burrows gauzes were often occupied by badgers, which died either of asphyxiation, or under the balls of the hunters awaiting them at the exit. The badgers leave only the evening come to go in the search of food and déféquer. The badger can make its needs in the burrow, in special rooms, but it generally outside does them in holes in the shape of funnel dug for this purpose. Before going to hunting, a meeting of delousing is practiced, which consists in being put on the back and scraping belly and sides with the teeth and the claws.

The small ones remain in front of the burrow to be played while waiting to be nourished. Their plays are an imitation of the life of large (distorts brawl, to dig, find the litter clean and to wedge it under the chin and the chest to return it to let us move back). In October the small ones will reach almost the size of the parents. For wintry time the clan will know one period of rest (and not of hibernation): they very strongly reduce their activity and live on the reserves of grease manufactured during the autumn (during this period an badger can increase its weight of 60%). Dispersion is still badly known. It would seem that they are the oldest individuals who leave the clan and not the young people as at the majority of the species.

The cranium of the badger

Striking fact, one notices a strong protuberance on the top of cranium, it acts of a characteristic of craniums of the carnivores: the sagittal peak which results from the welding of the parietal Os which shelters the brain of the badger.

Measurement:

• Overall length: 146 mm
• orbital Diameter: 19 mm

External bonds

kind Mix

Species Meles mix

badger

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