Badger

American badger.

Badgers are several species of medium sized mustelid carnivores, the Eurasian badger (Meles meles), the North American badger, both grey with striped black and white heads, and the Honey badger or Ratel of Africa. The dire badger is a large savage variety occasionally encountered in role-playing games.

Badgers are carnivorous upon various small animals such as rodents, moles and hedgehogs. They live in elaborate underground burrow complexes called setts.

In the United Kingdom badgers are commonly blamed by farmers for spreading bovine tuberculosis, although the disease is generally spread by uncontrolled livestock movements.

Badger hairs were sought after for making shaving-brushes, a practise that has ceased in many parts of the world due to the dwindling badger population. Badger hair shaving brushes now have something of an heirloom quality about them as commercially farming and shaving badgers has failed due to the fact that they are not social animals and tend to aggression when in captivity.

Badgers in the Bible

(According to the King James Version) the tabernacle in which Ark of the Covenant was kept included badger skins in its construction:

And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that. Exodus 36:19, (KJV)

(Some versions of the Bible (e.g. the NIV) state here that the hides of sirenians were used however.)

Origins

According to the origins theory model used by young earth creation scientists, modern badgers are the descendants of the founding members of the badger baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood. After the Flood, badgers bred from these Ark passengers and migrated to their modern habitats.

A majority of biologists regard evolution from earlier badger-like species as the most likely explanation for the various species of badgers.

Badgers in literature

• Mr. and Mrs. Badger helped the four children evade capture by the Queen who made it "always winter and never Christmas" in the first Narnia book.

• Badger is one of the main characters in The Wind in the Willows.