Badgers are wide, flat carnivores with a grizzled gray appearance and a distinctive white stripe from their nose, over their head, and ending between their shoulders. Average adults weigh 12 to 16 pounds, but may increase to 20 or more in the fall. Badgers are well known for their digging ability and fierce disposition. Badgers use multiple elaborate dens with tunnels from 6 to 15 feet deep and as much as 30 feet to an elevated main chamber. Badgers use bedding material and have a separate toilet chamber.
Badgers occur primarily in the western and north central states, with some eastward expansion. They occupy a home range of 3 to 4 square miles of prairie, open farmland, deserts, and woods if the soil is suitable for digging. Badgers eat prairie dogs, gophers, skunks, snakes, birds, eggs, worms, insects, carrion, and berries. Young badgers are eaten by coyotes and eagles. Breeding occurs in August or September with implantation delayed until February. Badgers have one litter a year with 2 to 7 young.
