Badger. Badger lifestyle and habitat. European badger: habitat, description, food Where badgers live

This animal is widely distributed, but it is not so easy to see it. Again, almost everyone knows what a badger looks like. Let's get to know this animal in more detail. Belonging to the marten family, he has a number of peculiar habits.

Appearance

The body length is from 60 to 90 centimeters, the length of the tail does not exceed 24 centimeters. With a total body length of more than 1 meter and a height of 50-60 centimeters, the badger animal is the largest of its family. The torso, tapering towards the shoulders, is connected by a short neck to an elongated head extended towards the nose. Thus, the torso, neck and head of the beast form a wedge. The paws are short and powerful. The claws on the front feet are longer than those on the hind feet. This is well demonstrated by badger tracks.

The fur of the beast consists of long awns and a thick undercoat. The silver-gray color of the back and sides is gradually replaced by almost black on the belly and paws. On the muzzle there are two wide black stripes that can start from the nose itself and cover the eyes and ears. The rounded tips of the ears are painted white.

The weight of the animal depends on the season: after waking up - up to 15 kg, before hibernation - up to 25 kg.

habitats

The habitat covers almost all of Europe. Behind Ural mountains the beast can be found almost throughout Russia (except for the extreme northern and arid regions). It is also distributed in China, on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan.

Thus, according to the habitat, the following varieties can be distinguished:

• European badger;
• Asian badger.

This animal often settles in mixed forests. Avoids open steppes and deserts, as well as dense taiga forests. The badger's dwelling is located in places where there is a lot of grass and shrubs, and the soil does not freeze and is not flooded. Where badgers live, there is always at least some body of water nearby: a lake, a swamp, a river.

Lifestyle and habits

Nora

The animal leads night image life, so his eyesight is poorly developed, and his hearing and sense of smell are very good. During the day it mostly sleeps for night hunting.

The animal spends most of its life in a burrow, which, being excellent at digging the ground, it builds, repairs and renovates. These animals can live alone or in families.

In the simplest version badger hole consists of one entrance, a tunnel and a nesting chamber at a depth of 1 to 5 meters. The nesting chamber is always landscaped with dry grass and leaves.

Often, badger burrows are connected into a complex labyrinth of many long tunnels, dead ends, nesting chambers and entrances and exits.

It is noteworthy that this animal tries to locate the nesting chambers under the aquifer, so that these chambers are always dry and warm. The animal regularly changes the old litter from the nesting chambers to the fresh one.

An abandoned badger hole can become a home for a fox or a raccoon dog.

It is also interesting that the animal digs special holes for its excrement.

Wintering

Not only having accumulated a sufficient amount of fat, but also having filled its pantries with the necessary supplies, the animal hibernates with the onset of winter. No other member of this family winters like this. Before lying down, he lays all the entrances to the hole with leaves. However, the badger in winter does not sleep like a bear, but sensitively.

He often wakes up, and in the thaw he can even leave the hole. At this time, traces of a badger can be found near the hole. Each individual hibernates in a separate nesting chamber. As soon as the snow begins to melt in spring, the animal finally wakes up.

Nutrition

Like any representative of the mustelids, the badger is considered a predator, but in fact it is an omnivore. Long-term observations allow us to unambiguously indicate what the badger eats.

His menu includes both plant and animal food, but not carrion, which he will not touch even in difficult hungry times.

Badgers feed on insects, amphibians and reptiles: often lizards, rarely snakes. As soon as the time comes for berries, mushrooms and nuts, he willingly absorbs them. A badger eats no more than half a kilogram of food per day.

reproduction

The common badger is a monogamous animal. The formed pair is preserved for the entire time until one of the partners dies. The badger rut begins in spring and ends in summer.

The next spring, the female brings 3-5 cubs, which are blind and completely helpless. Pregnancy lasts from 9 to 12 months. For the first three months of life, the only food for badgers is mother's milk. Then the parents teach them to hunt, and the children switch to regular food.

AT vivo the badger lives from 10 to 12 years.

Economic importance

The badger, destroying many such pests as the larvae of the May beetle, bears, rodents, brings great benefits to forestry and agriculture. However, when settling next to a person, the badger does not hesitate to eat from the garden. This causes harm, but the magnitude of the benefit from it is disproportionately greater.

badger and man

Badger fur has no commercial value. Not every hunter eats meat. Only badger fat, used in folk medicine. This animal is hunted mainly with the help of dogs.

It is thanks to the beneficial properties of badger fat that breeding of badgers has become profitable business. In captivity, these animals live 4-6 years longer than in wild nature.

The beast is easily tamed, but never gets along with dogs.

Video

How to find a badger hole in the forest, you will learn from our video.

Genus: Meles Brisson, 1762 = Badgers

mating season in badgers in the middle latitudes of Europe, apparently, falls on the second half of summer: the end of July and August.

Badgers are monogamous, their pairs form in autumn, but mating and fertilization occur at different times, and therefore the duration of pregnancy, which has a long latent stage, changes. With summer mating, the gestation period is 271-284 days, with early spring mating - up to 365 days, with winter mating - 420-450 days.

With the onset of the mating period, there is an increased functioning of the prianal gland, which secretes a liquid with a pungent odor and is located at the base of the tail in a skin fold. Therefore, at this time, in all badgers, the hair under the tail is colored bright yellow from the abundantly secreted secret, which, being indoors, its specific smell is felt, but in some cases mating in badgers can occur in mid-July. In all likelihood, this refers to young females that did not mate in the spring. Mating can take place both inside and outside the burrow. After a long mating, the heated male hall goes into a small reservoir, and, spreading out, stays there for a long time. The time of birth of the offspring falls on the month of April.

In a badger, a long gestation period is due to the presence of a lateral stage, during which there is a delay in the development of the embryo. Due to the presence of a lateral stage in pregnancy, badgers give birth to completely helpless blind cubs, weighing 70-80 grams, which undergo a long period of development (3 months) before the start of independent life. The auricle is formed in badgers at the age of three weeks, the eyes open on the 35-42 day, the teeth begin to erupt at the age of one month. In the development of teeth in badgers, a reduction in the milk system is observed. The eruption of milk teeth, which began at the age of one month, stops, and at the age of 2.5 months, the growth of permanent teeth immediately begins. The reduction of the milk system can be associated with the duration of feeding exclusively on mother's milk and the late, but very rapid transition to independent nutrition.

Before the transition to self-feeding, individual deviations in the growth of badgers of one brood are very small, but in different broods the growth rate may be different. After the transition to self-feeding (3 months), the badgers show individual deviations in the intensity of growth, often associated with sexual dimorphism.

At the age of 4-6 months, the badgers begin a mild decrease in the intensity of growth, which is covered in weight gain due to the onset of autumn obesity. In general, self-feeding young growth grows quite quickly, and an increase in body weight in badgers is observed up to maximum weight in winter. So, weighing 2.5-3 kg in July, badgers double their weight by October, and at the time of hibernation, they already weigh about 9 kg. In their first hibernation, badgers stay with their mother in a hole.

The average weight of European badgers caught in autumn usually ranges from 20 kg, rarely 30 kg. By autumn, they accumulate 5-6 kg of fat in the body.

Females become sexually mature at the age of two. Unlike females, males become sexually mature at the age of three years, and retain their sexual activity throughout the spring-summer season.

In many European countries, a law has been adopted to protect the badger, thanks to which, at present, its number is increasing every year, although there are cases of poaching.

Badger subspecies: Meles meles meles ( Western Europe), Meles meles marianensis (Spain and Portugal), Meles meles leptorynchus (Russia), Meles meles leucurus (China, Tibet), Meles meles anaguma (Japan).

European badger, Meles meles meles (L.), the largest, skull length 10.9-12.6 cm. There are first pseudo-rooted ones; thus, in each jaw there are four false-rooted teeth. In the dark areas of the color of winter fur, black tones predominate, light areas are white or gray; admixture of yellow tones in summer fur is weak. Summer color is slightly reddish. The dark stripes on the sides of the head are wide and cover the ear. The median light stripe stretches from the forehead to the beginning, and sometimes to the middle of the neck.

Western Asian badger. M. m. canescens B1anf., much smaller in size. The length of the skull is 9.7-11.2 cm. According to the features of the skull, it is close to the European one. The coloration is paler, sometimes with a fawn tint.

The Asian badger, M. t. leptorhynchus Milne-E d w., is close in size to the European, but somewhat smaller. The length of the skull is 10.2-11.6 cm. The first pseudo-rooted ones are absent, there are three of them in each jaw. In the color of light places, yellow and yellowish tones predominate; dark areas - with more or less development of brown tones. The dark stripes on the head are narrow, covering the eyes, but either do not touch the ear at all, or capture only its upper third.

Far Eastern badger, M. t. anakuma Tern m. - the smallest, skull length 9.2-10.5 cm. Like the previous subspecies, the first pseudo-rooted ones are absent. postorbital processes. The coloration is very dark; forehead - with a large admixture of brown and brown hair; the dark coloration of the lateral longitudinal stripes on the head sometimes almost merges with the coloration of the forehead and neck.

All materials are intended for educational use. When used in written student, student, etc. reference is obligatory: Site "Animal World", .

The common badger is a predatory animal from the weasel family, a class of mammals. It is considered one of the most easily recognizable animals in the wild. With its appearance, the badger is a bit like a medium-sized dog.

The body length of the animal is 70-90 cm. As a rule, females are slightly smaller than males.

The mammal has a rather long and fluffy tail. General form the body of the animal is cone-shaped. The rear wide part gradually narrows, turning into an elongated neck and an elongated muzzle.

On the head of a mammal there are small rounded ears with interesting tassels. white color. The eyes are small, reminiscent of shiny beads.

The limbs are not long, but rather massive. A notable feature is the claws, thanks to which the badger quickly digs the ground, building a hole for itself.

The coat of the animal is hard and short. On the back, the length of the coat does not exceed 8 cm, on the paws and head it is even shorter. The coloring of the animal is quite unusual. On the back and sides, the coat has a gray-silver tint, paws and belly are black. On the muzzle of the badger there are two black stripes that begin in the nose and end at the ears.

Animals molt 2 times a year (spring and summer). First, the soft undercoat falls out, then the guard hairs. At the end of August, the molt ends.

Due to the hard and thick coat, the animal visually seems larger than it really is. The weight of a badger depends on the season. Before hibernation, the average weight is 23 kg, after waking up - 15 kg.

The character of the badger is calm, not aggressive. When meeting with an enemy or a person, he prefers to quickly run away. Rarely strikes first.

The animal moves rather slowly, most often in small steps and jumps. But if he senses danger, he can run quickly, knows how to swim well. The mammal has a well-developed sense of smell and hearing. They can hear the enemy hundreds of meters away.

But the vision of the animal is weak. We can say that the animal is almost blind. The badger sees moving objects blurry, as if in a fog.

Badger tracks resemble those of a bear, only much smaller. The footprint of the animal is 4 cm wide, about 8 cm long.

The habits of the animal are well known. The badger is nocturnal, and sleeps during the day after hunting. The animal spends most of its life in a hole, which it builds and periodically updates. In the simplest version, the hole consists of:

• one entrance;
• mandatory long tunnel;
• nesting chamber, which contains leaves and dry grass.

Burrow depth - 1-5 meters. The animal has nesting chambers under the aquifer. Thanks to this, the hole is always dry and warm. Animals often change the litter, replacing rotten leaves with new ones.

Often, a badger hole is a complex structure with tunnels, many entrances and exits. A real labyrinth for other animals. Badgers build such holes for safety, to protect themselves and their offspring from foxes and raccoon dogs.

Range, habitats

The range of the animal is quite wide. The mammal lives throughout Europe, Russia and the Caucasus. The exception is Scandinavia (northern part) and Siberia.

The badger is found in China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

Based on the habitat, there are several types of animals:

• European badgers;
• Asian badger.

The animal lives where it is possible to dig a hole. If the area is flooded, the beast will not be able to get along there. Another important condition is the proximity of a reservoir or lake (within a radius of up to 1 km).

Often, the animal can be found in deciduous or mixed forests, where many shrubs and tall grass grow. The badger prefers to dig holes in overgrown ravines, on slopes, forest edges. Often, the dwelling of a live badger is found on the high banks of rivers. The beast does not live in open steppes, deserts, dense taiga forests.

What does a badger eat?

Like any representative of mustelids, badgers can be classified as predators. But in fact, the animal is not too whimsical in food and is even omnivorous.

From plant foods, he will not refuse roots, berries, fruits, mushrooms, succulent twigs of trees. If there are sown fields nearby, the badger can spoil crops. An animal cannot be fully called a herbivore or herbivore.

From animal food, the animal can eat small rodents, fish, birds, insects, mollusks, larvae.

Favorite badger food - earthworms. He can eat them every day large quantities and therefore does not require much water.

The animal will never touch carrion, even in the most hungry times. But it can eat its young.

The badger eats a little, up to 0.5 kg per day. Exceptions - the period of preparation for hibernation. In a few weeks, the animal can add up to 10 kg in weight. At this time, the food of the badger is varied.

Reproduction and offspring

Badgers are monogamous animals. They change partners only on rare occasions. Pairs are created for life.

The mating season for animals lasts from February to October. But the peak of sexual activity is in September. Pregnancy of the female lasts quite a long time, in some cases up to 12 months. It depends on the time when conception occurred.

Even before the appearance of offspring, an adult badger begins to prepare a new mink for cubs. In addition to entrances and exits, several nesting chambers are built, dry leaves are laid.

In each litter, 3-4 cubs are born (maximum 6). At first, badgers look like little rats. They are defenseless and completely dependent on their parents. Cubs are born blind and deaf, there is practically no fur on their body. The weight of a newborn badger does not exceed 80 grams.

Breastfeeding continues for 3-4 months. After, when the badgers begin to feed on their own, they quickly gain weight and leave their parents.

But as a rule, they spend the first hibernation (anabiosis) with their family, and after that they equip a separate hole.

Females become sexually mature at 2 years, males at 3 years.

How many live

The life expectancy of an animal in nature is 10-12 years, but in captivity it is somewhat longer (up to 16 years). This is due to the following factors:

1. In the first years of offspring, only 50% of newborns survive. The parents themselves will eat the cubs if they are hungry.
2. Even after the animal grows up, begins to feed on its own, mortality remains high. They are killed by rivals in the fight for holes and new territories.
3. Often, animals become food for bears, foxes, wolves.
4. You can not write off the accounts and poachers who hunt for badger fat, used in traditional medicine.
5. Animals die from infectious diseases.

Breeders are breeding badgers. This is a profitable business. But experts say that if the animal does not live in natural environment, badger fat loses its properties and qualities.

These mammals are not threatened with extinction. The animal is listed in the Red Book, but with a note that the species is under the least threat of extinction. Often the animal is exterminated as a carrier of serious diseases, such as rabies. But even so, their population remains large.

As the facts show, for badgers, a threat is a person. These animals die under the wheels of cars. If this continues, the badger will become a rare species or disappear from their natural habitat.

natural enemies

The mammal has few enemies. Wild animals are dangerous: bears, lynxes, wolves, dogs. As a rule, young, inexperienced individuals become victims.

If the badger is taken by surprise, the animal publishes shout, calls on the help of fellow tribesmen. Dealing with this animal is difficult. The animal bites, fights off with its paws, scratches the enemy. Causes serious injury to the offender.

But badgers do not quarrel with foxes. These animals can even settle in one hole. If the fox does not interfere and exterminate the offspring, such cohabitation will be successful.

Badgers - beneficial mammals. They eat insects that harm agriculture. The skin of the animal is of no interest in the fur industry, but badger fat is still valuable in folk medicine. Badgers do not die out, but it is forbidden to exterminate animals.

How do they reproduce? The answers to these and other questions can be found in our material.

Appearance

The badger is an animal that has a long body, smoothly tapering towards the head. Adults can grow up to 90 centimeters and gain weight of about 25 kilograms. Animals have short, massive limbs. Such paws allow badgers to move freely over a wide variety of terrain. The pads of the fingers are crowned with blunt, rather long claws, which enable the animal to create capacious burrows deep in the ground.

Badger fur has a non-uniform color. The coat on the body of the animal has a grayish-black tint with a silver tint. The head of the badger is white with black parallel stripes that extend from the muzzle to the neck.

Lifestyle

Often badgers in the forest live separately from their relatives. However, the vast majority form families. If an increased number of animals is observed in one area, they form small groups. Relatives populate the badger's burrow, where the dominant female and male predominate. The size of the territory controlled by the family sometimes reaches an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 400 hectares.

Animals mark the boundaries of their own possessions with an odorous secret. The spread of a characteristic musky smell tells uninvited guests that the territory is already occupied. Each group of relatives has its own unique secret flavor, which is secreted from special glands located near the tail of the animal.

When a badger fails to reproduce a dense population, the animal leads a solitary lifestyle. In such cases, the animal often finds shelter where it is necessary, and does not pay attention to the creation, arrangement and protection of the hole.

Habitats

The badger is an animal that is widespread throughout Europe. Numerous populations of the animal are observed in Russia. In domestic open spaces, the animal is found almost everywhere beyond the Ural Mountains, in addition to extreme north and dry areas. Badgers also live in Korea and China, on some islands of Japan.

The animal prefers to settle in dense mixed forests. The badger is rarely seen in the steppe regions. Animals live mainly in places where there is an abundance of shrubs and tall grasses, and the soil is never flooded by surface waters.

reproduction

The mating season for badgers begins in the middle of spring or early summer. During this period, the animals begin to look for a suitable pair, which subsequently persists for life. The union between the female and the male ends only in the event of the death of one of the individuals.

Pregnancy in animals is characterized by delays. Carrying babies in the womb usually occurs for 9 months. However, it may take up to one year.

Badger cubs are born deaf, blind and completely unadapted to life. Their only food for the first three months is their mother's milk. Badger cubs acquire relative independence in about six months. Upon reaching this age, young individuals, as a rule, leave the parental nest and go in search of an unoccupied territory. Once in the open spaces free from the encroachments of relatives, young badgers equip own dwelling. In the natural environment, the animals live up to 14-16 years.

Badger food in nature

Despite their predatory status, badgers are classified as omnivores. The daily diet of animals can be subject to significant changes, based on the time of year. Badgers are nocturnal hunters. During the daytime, these animals prefer to stay in safe burrows, digesting food and gaining energy.

In summer, in places where badgers live, there are plenty of all kinds of rodents, frogs and lizards. It is these creatures that form the diet of animals in warm time of the year. Among other things, badgers do not mind eating earthworms, large insects and their larvae, as well as all kinds of molluscs, slugs. In rare cases, birds that are in trouble are their prey. Sometimes badgers climb low trees, where they are engaged in ruining bird nests. also in summer time sweet vegetable roots, berries, nuts, mushrooms, wild fruits become food for the animal.

With the advent of autumn, badgers regularly make sorties to farmlands. Here, the animals are searching for the remains of crops, absorbing grains of corn, legumes, and other cultivated plants. In winter, when there is a shortage of food, in search of prey, these animals are able to travel tens of kilometers, then returning back to a warm and cozy hole.

Badger hole

An underground shelter is a place with which the existence of an animal is inextricably linked. From the holes where badgers live, members of the family prefer not to move more than half a kilometer away. This happens only when the animal feels an extreme shortage of food.

The passages in the ground, which badgers create with their powerful clawed paws, amaze with their size and ornate structure. The shelter of a family of animals can have a length of up to 80 meters or more. From the hole, as a rule, leads to several exits. If the population of animals in a particular area grows to a significant size, neighboring groups can connect their shelters. At the same time, animals from separate families often come to visit each other. The owners of the burrows are absolutely calm about such behavior.

The burrows where the badgers live are subjected to “general cleaning” several times a year. At the end of autumn, the animals traditionally clean the nesting chambers from accumulated debris, and also change the litter, which consists of dry grasses and moss. Badgers relieve their need each time in the same place, moving away from the shelter at a distance of several tens of meters.

Relationship with a person

Badgers are rarely hunted for meat. After all, the animal has a rather specific, somewhat repulsive aroma. Dishes made from badger meat do not have a very pleasant taste. The fur of the animal also has no commercial value.

Of interest to humans is exclusively badger fat, which finds wide application in the treatment of diseases folk methods. Study of useful properties of this substance was the reason for the organization of farms where they breed animals. Raising badgers for blubber is a fairly lucrative business these days. Animals are easily tamed. However, it is difficult for them to get along with dogs, to which badgers show particular dislike and aggression.

Badger or common badger is predatory mammal an animal that is a representative of the Kunih family. Animal badger - amazing creation, which combines unusual appearance, complaisant nature and considerable economic benefits. Below you will find a photo and description of badgers, you can learn a lot of interesting and new things about this forest animal.

What does a badger look like?

The badger looks like a medium-sized animal. An ordinary badger has a body length of 60 to 90 cm and a weight of up to 24 kg, while its tail is 20-25 cm long. Males are somewhat larger than females. The badger looks massive, thanks to the peculiar structure of the body. The animal badger has an elongated body shape resembling a wedge facing forward.

The European badger has a narrow, elongated muzzle with round, shiny eyes and a very short neck. The animal badger has short, strong paws, on the fingers of which there are long claws to dig holes.

The badger looks fluffy because of the long coat, which is quite harsh. Under the main fur of the European badger is a warm and dense undercoat. The hair of the common badger is gray or brown, often with a silvery sheen, and Bottom part body is almost black.

Badger looks rather unusual. Its white muzzle has two broad dark stripes that run from its nose to small, white-tipped ears. In winter, the badger looks lighter than in summer, when its coat takes on darker shades. In autumn, the badger is gaining to his normal weight 10 kg fat before hibernation. During this period, the badger looks especially large.

Where does the badger live?

The badger lives in almost the entire territory of Europe, with the exception of only the north of Finland and the Scandinavian Peninsula, since it does not live on freezing soils. Also, the animal badger lives in Asia Minor and Western Asia, in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

The badger lives in mixed and taiga forests. Sometimes badgers live in mountain ranges, they are also found in semi-deserts and steppes. The badger lives near bodies of water and sticks to dry areas, avoiding flooded areas.

The badger's home is his hole. Badgers live in deep burrows that they dig on the slopes of gullies, ravines and hills, high banks of rivers or lakes. The badger lives by spending most time in the hole. The common badger is a permanent and conservative animal, therefore habitable badger burrows are passed down from generation to generation.

In areas where there is an abundance of food, different families of badgers can form an entire city of badgers by combining their holes with each other. Each subsequent generation of badgers completes the construction of holes, breaking through new passages and expanding the family estate. So badger burrows turn into an underground city with dozens of exits.

Lonely badgers live in simple burrows; such a badger's house has one entrance and a nesting chamber. But a large family of badgers lives in entire settlements. The city of badgers is a complex and multi-tiered underground structure with many inlets and ventilation holes, with long tunnels, various passages and several nesting chambers. Nest chambers are usually at least 5 meters deep, spacious and lined with dry grass bedding.

Badgers arrange nesting chambers so that rain or groundwater does not seep through. The common badger is a practical animal and loves comfort. Therefore, comfortable and dry badger burrows are often occupied by foxes and raccoon dogs. This is not simple life at the badger.

In addition, the animal badger is a rare clean-up that regularly cleans the hole, throwing out garbage and periodically replacing the old bedding. Even the animal badger arranges a toilet outside the hole or allocates a special place in it. Also in the badger's hole there are various rooms for the household needs of the animal.

The life of a badger is peaceful, so the animal badger has almost no enemies in nature. The threat to him can be wolves and lynxes. But the main danger to the European badger is man. In some cases, human economic activity leads to an improvement in the conditions for the habitat of badgers. But on the other hand, a network of built roads in natural areas increases the mortality of this animal and deprives it of its natural habitats. Most harm to badger populations is caused by a person who destroys badger burrows. The badger's home is very important for the animal.

The badger is listed in the International Red Book under the status of "Least Threatened". After all, this beast is quite common and has stable populations. But the badger is hunted in order to obtain its healing fat, which is widely used in alternative medicine. In Europe, the badger was subjected to global destruction as a carrier of dangerous diseases.

Badger numbers have declined significantly in areas that are actively economic activity. This has led to the loss of badger habitats, besides, it is destroyed as a "pest" of crops. However, from common badger more good than harm, because he eats a lot of pests Agriculture.

What does a badger eat and how does it live?

The badger lives, showing activity mainly at night. But it can often be found during daylight hours, in the early morning or late afternoon. The animal badger is quite noisy, it sniffs loudly, makes various sounds and moves slowly. Badgers have poor eyesight. But on the other hand, the animal badger has a well-developed sense of smell and good hearing, which helps him navigate.

The common badger is not naturally aggressive. When meeting with a predator or a person, the animal badger prefers to retreat to cover. But in anger, the European badger bites the offender and hits with his nose, after which he flees. However, the main male in the badger family very zealously guards the family plot from strangers.

The badger eats quite diversely and is practically omnivorous, but prefers animal food. The badger feeds on various mouse-like rodents, lizards, frogs, birds and their eggs. The badger also feeds on earthworms, insects and their larvae, molluscs. The badger eats berries, mushrooms, nuts and grass.

When hunting, the badger travels considerable distances, examines fallen trees to find various insects and earthworms. For one hunt, the animal badger gets up to 70 frogs and several hundred insects. But a badger eats only 0.5 kg of food per day, which is quite enough for him. Only closer to autumn, the badger begins to fatten up and eat off to survive hibernation.

The animal badger is the only representative of the mustelid family that hibernates in winter. For example, the stoat does not hibernate at all. In cold areas, hibernation of badgers begins in mid-autumn and lasts until spring. But in warm areas with mild winters, he does not sleep all year round.

Animal badger is an active environment transducer in the animal world. Badger burrows affect the soil and the organisms that live in it. In addition, often the badger's hole serves as housing for other species of animals, where you can breed or simply escape from bad weather.

The European badger is a carrier of diseases dangerous to humans and domestic animals. It carries rabies and tuberculosis cattle. To control these diseases, most often reduce the number of animals, by exterminating and destroying their homes. Now in Europe, animals are being vaccinated in natural conditions to combat the spread of rabies.

Sometimes an animal badger creates storage in fields, gardens or under buildings, which causes conflict between the animal and the person. A significant part of the diet of the European badger is made up of various pests of forestry and agriculture. For example, a badger feeds on the larvae of the cockchafer.

The skin of a badger is of little value. Since wool is very hard, its hair is used in the manufacture of brushes for painting. But badger fat has remarkable healing properties, in connection with which the animal is fiercely pursued by hunters.

Badgers are monogamous and often form pairs on long years or even for life. The mating season for the European badger begins at the end of winter and continues until September. Educated couples have been preparing a nesting chamber since autumn, in which badgers should be born.

Pregnancy in a female has an extended period and its duration depends on the time at which mating took place. Therefore, a female can bear cubs of a badger from 9 to 14 months. Most often, from 2 to 6 badger cubs are born.

In Europe, badgers are born from December to April, and in Russia - in March-April. Badger cubs are born blind, deaf and helpless. Only at the age of 1.5 months do badger cubs begin to see clearly and begin to hear. The mother feeds badgers with milk for almost 3 months.

But very soon the badger cubs are already beginning to come out of the hole and eat on their own. By the age of 6 months, badger cubs almost reach the size of adults. In autumn, the brood breaks up. After that, each badger begins an independent life.

Females become capable of breeding at the age of two years, and males - by three years of age. In nature, a badger lives 10-12 years, and in captivity, a badger's life expectancy reaches 16 years.

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