Not too many weeks ago, we did a Photo Phriday on badgers. I got a request to do them again. I guess the guy just loves those dirt-eaters. I agree with him; they are pretty much a unique and beautiful critter. I've trapped them all my life, but have never caught more than a handful in any given year. Here's a few images. Hope you enjoy. They have quite a reputation for their meanness, which I'm not sure they deserve.

This, to me, is a rather typical pose of a badger in a foothold. They can really tear up the ground.



This is a young-of-the-year badger in the southwest Idaho desert.



This is mom badger and her three kids caught on the desert south of Kuna, Idaho on a research project I was involved with in the 1970s..



This was my pet coyote that really liked smelling them (when they were drugged).

cool pics!

what was the research program looking at, if you don't mind me asking?

Badgers are one of the most interesting fur bearers there is. Fur primeness is very slow and not at it's max till later in Dec. That is when the true 4-5 inch fur shines especially when made into caps.
Interesting the early badger skins are used as the leather in saddles on the underside.
As for the European badgers only a true Scots man really knows it's money keeping worth

The research (3 years) was headed up by John Messick for his PhD work at the U of Idaho and U.B.C. (Univ. of British Columbia) and centered on learning the basic ecology of a dense population. It was conducted on the Snake River Birds of Prey Natural Area and was mainly looking at the competition between all the predators, mainly with prairie falcons.

Your badgers, Taxidea taxus, are actually unrelated to true badgers (Meles) in the initial European l sense of the word.



Ours are a slightly different species from the European Badger. Asiatic Badgers have broader white stripes on their faces, hence the Latin nam Meles leucurus ("leucurus" means white-eared).
There are plenty of them in my home region. They build extensive den systems, called "gorodok" (little town) here. I think they sometimes share den systems with our local marmot species, the Forest-Steppe Marmot, which also prefers forested slopes. They hibernate all winter and get really heavy by mid-August, and are harvested for their fat (the season here is open from August, 15th to October, 15th). Their fat is considered medicinal. Most people don't even bother to save the skins because the demand is low. They're usually taken with dogs such as jagdterriers or laikas, or with traps, even though legholds are formally forbidden. Some people dig up their dens but it's illegal and overall not a sustainable way to harvest them. Some people who hunt with dogs don't even use guns, they just wait near the den entrance with a pitchfork until the dog drives the badger out.

They're also interesting in that they molt once a year, in the spring, like groundhogs, and their fur turns more or less prime by late summer/early fall. The fur is pretty, but the down hair is pretty thin.





There is also a form of the Asiatic Badger with dark, sooty-looking face, that is more common to the east of here and in the Far East, but it's treated as a subspecies and not a separate species. The Japanese have their own species of true badger, Meles anakuma. "Anakuma" means badger, from "ana" (hole, burrow) + "kuma (bear). The Japanese badger is also very similar to ours but paler (many mammals in Japan seem to be paler and cuter-looking for some reason - marten, boar, wolves and badgers among others...).



This is a small badger my ex's dog found in the spring once. When he followed the noise and found them, the badger was fighting with the dog, but its back legs were not working, so it had probably encountered a grumpy spring bear earlier and escaped with a spinal injury, and this was how the dog was even able to find and stop it in broad daylight. We used it to establish a live cell line of the species and obtain the full genome sequence from it.




Badger dens are sometimes occupied by these %^(#*ck#&s. Nasty animals. This one is from a den previously occupied by a big lone badger. They're native to the Far East but introduced (= invasive) elsewhere. I hadn't even seen a tanuki until this year, but our landscapes with lots of ravines and marmot burrows are a perfect habitat for them, so they'll probably become numerous soon. Interesting how it's a canid but resembles both raccoons and badgers, which they have a similar ecology with (they like wet habitats and live in dens).

Really like badgers. All the types in the world, but American badgers hold the win on looking the part. Mini wolverines.

I wish I was commissioned to draw more of them. The one I have is very old.

Love the colours in their fur. That translucent apricot tone mixed with grizzled greys and black is striking. One of the most beautiful rug mounts I've seen is a badger . Displayed on JR's wall. The best way to show those colours , with a complimentary toned frame in rug outline.

N50, good info. I didn't know about the skins used on saddles. That has to be tough leather to uphold the usage under the saddle. And , for once, you curtailed details on those tiny bad crawley nasties !

Tatiana - tanuki? I never crossed paths with them in the F.E.R. More about them?

Sharon - That's a mighty fine rendition! Kudos! (Perhaps not enough dirt in his eyes?). Thank you!

Jack

I used to target badger in the spring, starting mid March. They have very nice fur when prime. I shipped 14 spring badger one year and got a $70 average on the top seven. The others were all unsold and hit the PT room and sold for $5 each. There was not that much difference in them. Talk about an average killer.

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Here's a couple I got a few years back.....

Good lookin' plew!

I've been over on the highline just south of Chinook, Montana. Those are some fine badgers ("puffballs"). Bushmaster, yours look every bit as good.

Kinda ruins the set !

wws

Here is a link to an intresting historical post. It is quite long and repeats quite a bit of information.>https://www.unco.edu/hewit/pdf/doing-history/co-trappers-and-traders-trappers.pdf

I meant the raccoon dog, or yenotovidnaya sobaka, in Russian. A bulky name, so many people have been calling them by their Japanese name, tanuki. Probably after “Pom Poko”, an animated film by Studio Ghibli came out. Much sadder than the trailer, but worth watching as it is both an accurate depiction of the species and a nice, detailed rendition of the related mythology (the Japanese believe the tanuki are shapeshifters and depict them with enormous testicles).




There have been several introduction loci all over Russia but they’re not ubiquitous yet. Still they are spreading fast, both long range, to new regions, and short range, occupying new biotopes, including here in West Siberia. There have been more and more sightings of them up north, around 60 degrees N. It’s not really good news because while they integrate sort of seamlessly because their specific ecological niche is free here, they are notorious expert nest robbers and gravitate towards wetland habitats (creek valleys, beaver ponds, swamps), which puts lots of extra pressure on nesting waterfowl. And the situation with waterfowl numbers is very bleak here compared to North America, not even because of hunting and agricultural factors, but but because the birds aren’t safe on their molting lakes up north in/near the Arctic, where natives just scoop them out by the hundreds, and it’s just as bad down south where they spend the winter (Middle Asia/Middle East, with more hungry rural/trigger-happy urban Muslims also without any concept of “enough”).
Plus they’re a key vector of rabies, probably more prone to it than the red fox. I think I’ve posted this video before. The guy in the video doesn’t comprehend the danger.



Fur-wise, wild-caught ones don’t have much value, because the Chinese produce enough ranch raccoon dog fur. Nevertheless it’s #1 popular fur for parka trim here (it’s usually plucked and only small tufts of guard hair are left). The fur is typically canine to the touch, but really long, the whole animal looks like wolf shoulders. I found it interesting that they have a wide range of facial expressions (they are social canines after all), and in this sense they’re very different from mustelids with their beady eyes that can only go from sleepy to normal to agitated %)

Can someone tell me the technique to pulling a badger from a barrel that was done at different events, and maybe still is? Seems like a way to lose a finger or two.

I thought that's what you meant, Tatiana. I like the name Tanuki.

Jack knows them too. I believe I saw a photo he posted with a lady wearing Tanuki fur , a long coat.

I understand your observations of the native and Muslim ( I'm surprised Russia has them ), element alike taking way more waterfowl , with no mental concept of "enough". On some reservation lands , I'm surprised there are any wildlife left.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the yenote. More familiar name in US is Finnish raccoon. Here's a picture of my ex with a full-length yenote coat. I thought it was wolf when I first saw it (the coat, not the ex).

I remember being told that shoe laces and paint brush hairs were made form the badges. Is that wrong?.....jk