Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogabam. Here. The badgers of popular culture range quite a bit, from the dependable, no nonsense badger of Wind and the Willows to the friendly and faithful mascot of Hogwarts House Hufflepuff, to other sports mascots, to dancing flash animations to the shall we say care free honey badger of internet lore. As a group of animals, badgers are equally varied. The name doesn't refer to one
specific animal. From an evolutionary standpoint, the badgers of the world represent four separate evolutionary lineages within the weasel family must Talladay, which also includes ferrets, otters, and wolverines, plus a fit lineage represented by the two species of stink badgers, which aren't even classified as weasels at all, but belong to the skunk family. A fitted day, we spoke Emily Latch, a wildlife geneticist in the Department of Biological Sciences at
the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She said badgers are found nearly worldwide, living in diverse habitats and with diverse diets. One of their most unique features is their shared adaptations for fossa reality. Living underground, they have reduced eyes and ears, enlarged fore limbs and claws for digging, and bodies that are tapered at both ends. The American badger is a
good example of these adaptations. American badgers are mostly nocturnal, mid sized carnivores that feed primarily on rodents, but also things that hang out on the ground, like snakes and ground dwelling birds. While they're found primarily in grasslands and other treeless areas, they can hang out in forests too.
Unlike raccoons, coyotes, and white tailed deer, they're not thrilled by the presence of humans and the roads and houses and Verizon stores that come with us everywhere we go, but since there's not much of an option these days, they grudgingly tolerate suburban neighborhoods as long as there's plenty of soil to dig around in. Latch said, American badgers
have few predators. Eagles and large carnivores such as wolves and bears might occasionally kill a small badger, but mustelids in general have a reputation for punching above their weight. As for badgers, some species such as the American badger or the honey badger have a well deserved reputation for being aggressive. By the way, the verb badger, meaning to persistently pester, actually doesn't come from the behavior of these animals, but rather the behavior of dogs trained to bother badgers
during a fairly cruel medieval sport called badger baiting. One thing that unites badgers from all the world over, from North America to Africa to Southeast Asia is their habit of digging and living in dens called sets, which consists of an interconnected work of tunnels and chambers, and badgers lived together in groups, the size of the group depending
on the size of the set. One European badger set in southern England is thought to cover a territory of over a square mile that's two thousand square meters, with up to a hundred entrances. It provides shelter for not only dozens of badgers, but rabbits and foxes too. Badgers sleep and give birth in specified chambers of the tunnel system and keep these burrows immaculately clean. They don't bring
food in or eliminate waste inside. Sets can also house many generations of badgers, some have been found to be over a hundred years old. Badgers are such prolific and proficient diggers that they sometimes excavate ancient human artifacts and remains, albeit in a more haphazard manner than your standard archaeologist.
For instance, in a European badger uncovered a two thousand year old burial urn near the side of Stonehenge which contained cremated remains and archer's wrist guard, a copper chisel, and a bronze saw. Similarly, in Alberta, Canada, in a farmer found a human skull sticking out of an American badger hole in his cow pasture. It turns out the skull belonged to an indigenous girl from the early eighteen hundreds,
a time before Europeans arrived in the area. Also found in the badger's discard pile where many beads, brass, buttons, and rings that would have been very valuable at the time, suggesting that this was a personal stature who was probably on route between places. One of the most heartwarming and mystifying aspects of the American badger's social life is that they often prefer to hunt alongside coyotes, even passing up a hunting buddy of the same species to form a
short term hunting alliance with one of these canines. Scientists believe that this unlikely partnership is convenient to both species because they're hunting techniques are so compatible. The badger can dig into a rodent's den and flush it out, only for the roadent to be chased and caught by the speedy coyote. Conversely, a coyote can chase the prey down underground,
only to be cornered by the ruthless badger. Badger's employ a mix of vocalizations snarling, hisses, squeals, and growls to scare off attackers, but they also released a stinky must be smell if repellent sounds don't do the trick. Today's episode was written by Jescelyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this lots of other dependable topics, visit
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