Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogabam. Here. The badgers of popular
Speaker 1: culture range quite a bit, from the dependable, no nonsense
Speaker 1: badger of Wind and the Willows to the friendly and
Speaker 1: faithful mascot of Hogwarts House Hufflepuff, to other sports mascots,
Speaker 1: to dancing flash animations to the shall we say care
Speaker 1: free honey badger of internet lore. As a group of animals,
Speaker 1: badgers are equally varied. The name doesn't refer to one
Speaker 1: specific animal. From an evolutionary standpoint, the badgers of the
Speaker 1: world represent four separate evolutionary lineages within the weasel family
Speaker 1: must Talladay, which also includes ferrets, otters, and wolverines, plus
Speaker 1: a fit lineage represented by the two species of stink badgers,
Speaker 1: which aren't even classified as weasels at all, but belong
Speaker 1: to the skunk family. A fitted day, we spoke Emily Latch,
Speaker 1: a wildlife geneticist in the Department of Biological Sciences at
Speaker 1: the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She said badgers are found
Speaker 1: nearly worldwide, living in diverse habitats and with diverse diets.
Speaker 1: One of their most unique features is their shared adaptations
Speaker 1: for fossa reality. Living underground, they have reduced eyes and ears,
Speaker 1: enlarged fore limbs and claws for digging, and bodies that
Speaker 1: are tapered at both ends. The American badger is a
Speaker 1: good example of these adaptations. American badgers are mostly nocturnal,
Speaker 1: mid sized carnivores that feed primarily on rodents, but also
Speaker 1: things that hang out on the ground, like snakes and
Speaker 1: ground dwelling birds. While they're found primarily in grasslands and
Speaker 1: other treeless areas, they can hang out in forests too.
Speaker 1: Unlike raccoons, coyotes, and white tailed deer, they're not thrilled
Speaker 1: by the presence of humans and the roads and houses
Speaker 1: and Verizon stores that come with us everywhere we go,
Speaker 1: but since there's not much of an option these days,
Speaker 1: they grudgingly tolerate suburban neighborhoods as long as there's plenty
Speaker 1: of soil to dig around in. Latch said, American badgers
Speaker 1: have few predators. Eagles and large carnivores such as wolves
Speaker 1: and bears might occasionally kill a small badger, but mustelids
Speaker 1: in general have a reputation for punching above their weight.
Speaker 1: As for badgers, some species such as the American badger
Speaker 1: or the honey badger have a well deserved reputation for
Speaker 1: being aggressive. By the way, the verb badger, meaning to
Speaker 1: persistently pester, actually doesn't come from the behavior of these animals,
Speaker 1: but rather the behavior of dogs trained to bother badgers
Speaker 1: during a fairly cruel medieval sport called badger baiting. One
Speaker 1: thing that unites badgers from all the world over, from
Speaker 1: North America to Africa to Southeast Asia is their habit
Speaker 1: of digging and living in dens called sets, which consists
Speaker 1: of an interconnected work of tunnels and chambers, and badgers
Speaker 1: lived together in groups, the size of the group depending
Speaker 1: on the size of the set. One European badger set
Speaker 1: in southern England is thought to cover a territory of
Speaker 1: over a square mile that's two thousand square meters, with
Speaker 1: up to a hundred entrances. It provides shelter for not
Speaker 1: only dozens of badgers, but rabbits and foxes too. Badgers
Speaker 1: sleep and give birth in specified chambers of the tunnel
Speaker 1: system and keep these burrows immaculately clean. They don't bring
Speaker 1: food in or eliminate waste inside. Sets can also house
Speaker 1: many generations of badgers, some have been found to be
Speaker 1: over a hundred years old. Badgers are such prolific and
Speaker 1: proficient diggers that they sometimes excavate ancient human artifacts and remains,
Speaker 1: albeit in a more haphazard manner than your standard archaeologist.
Speaker 1: For instance, in a European badger uncovered a two thousand
Speaker 1: year old burial urn near the side of Stonehenge which
Speaker 1: contained cremated remains and archer's wrist guard, a copper chisel,
Speaker 1: and a bronze saw. Similarly, in Alberta, Canada, in a
Speaker 1: farmer found a human skull sticking out of an American
Speaker 1: badger hole in his cow pasture. It turns out the
Speaker 1: skull belonged to an indigenous girl from the early eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: a time before Europeans arrived in the area. Also found
Speaker 1: in the badger's discard pile where many beads, brass, buttons,
Speaker 1: and rings that would have been very valuable at the time,
Speaker 1: suggesting that this was a personal stature who was probably
Speaker 1: on route between places. One of the most heartwarming and
Speaker 1: mystifying aspects of the American badger's social life is that
Speaker 1: they often prefer to hunt alongside coyotes, even passing up
Speaker 1: a hunting buddy of the same species to form a
Speaker 1: short term hunting alliance with one of these canines. Scientists
Speaker 1: believe that this unlikely partnership is convenient to both species
Speaker 1: because they're hunting techniques are so compatible. The badger can
Speaker 1: dig into a rodent's den and flush it out, only
Speaker 1: for the roadent to be chased and caught by the
Speaker 1: speedy coyote. Conversely, a coyote can chase the prey down underground,
Speaker 1: only to be cornered by the ruthless badger. Badger's employ
Speaker 1: a mix of vocalizations snarling, hisses, squeals, and growls to
Speaker 1: scare off attackers, but they also released a stinky must
Speaker 1: be smell if repellent sounds don't do the trick. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Jescelyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.
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