American Badget, Taxidea taxus

American Badget, Taxidea taxus. Photograph taken within the confines of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Palm Desert, California, March 2011. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

The American Badger, Taxidea taxus, is a member of the Mustelidae family that includes weasels, badgers, otters, martens, and wolverines. The Mustelidae Family has five-subfamilies with fifty-five members placed in twenty-one genera.  Globally there are eleven known species of badgers with the American Badger being the only one found in North America. The American Badger is the only species in the Taxidea genus. The American Badger is known in Mexico as Tlalcoyote and Tejón.

The American Badger has a flattened body with short and stocky legs. They have brown or black fur and their ventrum is a buffy color. They have a dark, triangular face with a long, pointed, tipped-up nose and small ears on the sides of their head. Their faces are distinct, with white stripes on their cheeks and one white stripe that extends dorsally over their head from their nose. In northern populations, this stripe ends near their shoulders. In southern populations, however, it continues dorsally over their back to their rump. American Badgers measure from 52 cm (20.5 inches) to 88 cm (34.5 inches) from head to tail, with their tail making up only 10 cm (3.9 inches) to 15.5 cm (6.1 inches) of this length. They weigh between 4 kg (8 lbs 13 oz) and 12 kg (26 lbs 7 oz). They are sexually dimorphic with the males being significantly larger than the females. Additionally, animals from northern populations are larger than those from southern populations.

American Badgers breed in late summer or early autumn and both males and females travel more extensively to find mates during this time. They display a polygynandrous mating system, meaning that both males and females in this species have multiple mates during breeding time. Embryos are arrested early in development and implantation is delayed until December or as late as February. After this period, the embryo implants into the uterine wall and resumes development. Although a female is technically pregnant for 7 months, gestation is a mere 6 weeks. Female badgers prepare a grass-lined den in which to give birth and litters consist of 1 to 5 offspring. The young are born in early spring and are precocial, being born blind and helpless with a thin coat of fur. Their eyes open at 4 to 6 weeks of age, and the young are nursed by their mother until they are 2 to 3 months old. Parental care is provided by the female, who gives her young solid food before they are weaned and for a few weeks after they are weaned. Young may emerge from the den as early as 6 weeks old and juveniles disperse at 5 to 6 months old. Females are able to mate when they are 4 months old, however, most females mate after their first year. Males do not mate until the autumn of their second year. American Badgers have life spans up to twenty-six years in captivity and four to ten years in the wild.

American Badgers are solitary animals and typical population density is approximately  five animals per square kilometer. They are primarily nocturnal and tend to be inactive during winter months. They are not true hibernators, rather, they spend much of the winter in cycles of torpor that typically last 29 hours at a time. During torpor, body temperatures fall to about 9℃ (48.2 ℉) and the heart beats at about half the normal rate. They emerge from their dens on warm days during the winter.

American Badgers are excellent diggers. Their powerful forelimbs and sharp claws allow them to tunnel rapidly through soil. Burrows are constructed mainly in pursuit of prey, but they are also used for sleeping, storing food, and giving birth. A typical badger den may be as far as 3 meters (10 feet) below the surface, contain about 10 meters (33 feet) of tunnels, and have an enlarged chamber for sleeping. They use multiple burrows within their home range, and they may not use the same burrow for more than one a month. In the summer months, they typically dig a new burrow each day. When threatened, they will often back into a burrow and bare their teeth and claws, sometimes plugging up the burrow entrance with dirt. American Badger burrows are also used by other bird and mammal species when vacated by badgers. While the American Badger spends most of its time on or under the ground, they can swim and have been known to dive underwater.

American Badgers are carnivorous. Their diet primarily consists of pocket gophers, ground squirrels, moles, marmots, prairie dogs, woodrats, kangaroo rats, deer mice, and voles. Additionally, they prey on nesting birds, lizards, amphibians, carrion, fish, hibernating skunks, insects (including bees and honeycomb), and some plant foods. They typically dig their prey out of the ground and will sometimes dig into the burrow of a prey animal and wait for it to return. In turn, they are preyed upon by golden eagles, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, and sometimes bears and gray wolves. The American Badger possesses several adaptations to fend off predators. Their muscular neck and thick, loose fur gives them time when they are captured to bite and claw at the predator. When attacked, American Badgers will also use vocalizations such as hisses, growls, squeals, and snarls. They also have  the ability to release an unpleasant musk that will drive predators away.

From a conservation perspective, the American Badger is currently considered to be of Least Concern with a wide distribution. Their population have declined substantially in areas converted from grassland to intensive agriculture and where colonial rodents such as prairie-dogs and ground squirrels have been reduced or eliminated. They are primarily threatened by habitat loss and human persecution. Trapping for pelts has in the past affected populations, primarily in response to high fur prices, but has not had a significant influence on populations in recent years. American badgers are often trapped, shot, and poisoned because their diggings are believed to cause broken legs in livestock, lead to water loss from irrigation canals, and cause damage to vehicles encountering their burrows. Additionally, a significant number are subject to road kill.