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North
American Badger Article By Dennis
O'Shea
Badge was always a very loving animal she grew to be very protective
and this at times was a problem. Badge always slept on the floor beside
our bed, she had to be reassured at night that I was close by, I think
if she could she would have been on the bed beside us, she liked it if
I laid on the floor cause she could come and curl up beside me or she
would want up on the couch with me . When ever I was sick she would always
stay right by my side she had to be able touch my face from time to time
or she would get upset, she had to be able to give her Badger kiss on
the face and her hugs with her front paws this is something she did with
both Denies and I she did this every time you were down on the floor with
her . Badge learned how to buffalo everyone early on and she would keep
them on there toes . At times I think it became a game with her to see
if people would run or not . She would be aggressive only to a point ,
most of the time her heart really wasn't in going after them . Denies
has a uncle that Badge never liked all she had to do is hear his voice
outside and she would get upset needless to say he never came in the house
. Badge bit me two times in the years we had her the first time was when
someone thought they could pet her and the second time was when she was
sleeping under the table at my feet and are daughter came in the back
door and scared her, she bit my foot and believe me her bits were much
worst than any dog bit . Badge and I had are little bouts like when she
learned how to go up stairs and she got into all the kids rooms and pulled
down everything she could reach, the first thing she did was purr as if
she was proud of what she had done, then when I told her she was in trouble
she run to find a blanket to hide under . She only went up the stairs
once after that but the door was closed . I think she must have fallen
down the stairs cause she never went back up again after that .Badge always
had to know what was in things and she would spend a lot of time working
open everything she could get her paws on, then she would take everything
out of drawers and cabinets so I had to put child proof locks on everything
. She would pull on anything that hung down as well, if someone put a
coat on the back of a chair she would pull it off and sleep on it or drag
it to the bedroom the cats learned to sleep with there tails up or she
would drag them off the chair too . The kids were in there late teens
and they didn't want to take the time to mess with the badger she was
just another pet to them and sometimes a problem for them and there friends
. Now that they are all in there thirties they realize just what a special
animal Badge was and how privileged they were to have had her in there
lives, there friends always though it was cool to have a pet like Badge
even though she kept them on the run . Badge is still remembered by everyone
that had been around her during her life time even the grandkids ask about
her every now and then , they were around her for a few years . Raising
a Badger isn't something just anyone could do because of the nature of
the animal we were lucky enough to have found her at a very young age
I think if she had been older we wouldn't have been able to keep her .
It would have been nice if we could have let her go out in her natural
environment but she didn't have the skills that her mother would have
tough her to stay alive . I still believe that all wild animals should
be free to live in there natural environment and not owned by anyone
While out hiking in April 1983 a black lab that was with us brought
us a Badger kit she had found on the logging road ahead of us. We could
tell what it was by the head and face markings which were already well
pronounced. The rest of it was just a furry white ball. It's front legs
and claw's were already well developed. It's eyes were sealed shut and
an inch or more umbilical cord was still attached. It's back legs were
not very well developed yet and were not of much use to it. We figured
she was only a few days old. We found the entrance to the stet and put
her back in it as far as I could reach. After a while she crawled back
out she would pull herself along with her front leg's. We looked around
the stet and could find any sign of activity or tracks. We knew if she
wouldn't stay in the stet that she would not survive long. We took her
to the forest service office they didn't want to have anything to do with
it. The officer gave us the same response everyone we contacted was certain
the kit would not survive. At this time Badger's were listed as a varmint
and had no protection in Idaho. We decided we would try and raise her
ourselves with the idea of letting her go when she got old enough. The
first thing we learned was that she was starving and if we didn't find
a way to get some food in her she wouldn't last to much longer. The next
installment will tell how we learned to feed Badge (we named her that
because of her markings)
Hearing a animal cry because it's starving and not knowing what to do
about it is probably the worst feeling a person can have. We tried baby
bottles but they were to big for her. We could dip a finger in warm milk
and she would lick it off but that didn't fill her up very fast. We resorted
to putting a squeeze bottle in her mouth and shooting milk .into her we
got more on her than in her. She had to be fed every couple of hours 24
hr.. a day. Susan solved the problem while feeding her in the middle of
the night. She put the milk in a ziplock bag sealed it then put a pinhole
in one corner and it worked great. We could get enough food in her to
cut the feedings to every 4 hr.. once we were getting enough food in her
she got sick and started bleeding from her anus. We called several vet's
most didn't know anything about badgers or any wild animals and didn't
want to be bothered. We found one that was really interested and wanted
to help. He checked her and found that she couldn't digest cow's milk
completely because of the dextrose in it. He suggested we try synthetic
kitten milk (hard to find & very expensive) or goat milk (sold canned
in about any food store & inexpensive) after we changed her to goat milk
she got better in a few days. The vet also gave us some ointment for her.
She really looked funny sleeping flat on her back with white ointment
on her butt. At 3 weeks she was able to nurse from a Platex baby bottle
she grew like a weed and never had another sick day in her life. At 5
weeks her eye's still hadn't opened the vet said they would probably open
at about 6 weeks old. He was right again.
At about 5 1/2 weeks Badge opened her eye's and took a look around.
I was laying on the bed with her when I noticed that she was looking at
me. Her eye's were just little slits at first but in a few moments they
were wide open. She was no longer interested in taking a nap and set off
to explore her domain. She was still small enough to fit in my coat pocket
when ever we took her along with us on outings. She would just curl up
and sleep in my pocket. At 7 weeks she started getting teeth. we decided
to try and wean her then but finding what kind of solid food to give her
was a problem. We tried canned dog & cat food she wouldn't eat either
of them. We tried ground elk she tried to eat it but her teeth were not
strong enough to chew it up properly and she would gag on it. She solved
the problem herself she was very inquisitive I was having scrambled egg's
one morning and she wanted to see what I had. When I showed her she gobbled
them right down and we found a new food. She ate egg's for a couple of
weeks till her teeth got strong enough to chew meat. We let her decide
what she wanted to eat from then on. She ate deer or elk when we had it
and beef at times. we fed her stew meat or ground meat. Susan was thawing
out chicken and Badge wanted to see what it was. when she put a leg down
for Badge she took one bite of it then ran off with the whole leg. From
then on she ate chicken mostly just the leg or thigh meat she didn't like
any other part. She wasn't vary expensive to feed we would get packages
of thighs and leg's and freeze them in 1 day size containers for her.
The most she ate was one Leg & thigh a day usually in two meals one in
the morning and one in the afternoon. For a treat she liked berry jam
homemade huckleberry was her favorite next was strawberry or raspberry
(even though the seed's would get stuck in her teeth). It was time to
take her outside and see what she would do.
When Badge came to live with us we also had 1 dog 2 cat's and 2 teenager's.
The dog was a miniature pom and turned out to be badge's favorite playmate
also the lab that found her lived next door and spent a lot of time at
our house. The lab would let Badge climb all over her and didn't seem
to mind it at all. Badge would also curl up next to her and go to sleep.
the theory of badgers and dog's being natural enemies went right out the
window. Badge and the palm liked to try and pull each other around with
a piece of rope. At first the dog would win all the time but when Badge
grew and outweighed him she won most of the time. I don't know if I am
right but I think she let him win sometimes so he would keep playing.
When ever he won she would lay on her belly and push herself with her
back leg's otherwise he wouldn't have been able to move her at all. The
dog was already pretty old when Badge came. They were together for 6 years
when the dog died Badge Would look for him in all his hiding places and
really seemed to miss him. Some say animals aren't capable of having feelings
for each other but I don't believe that. In the old day's I have read
of staged Badger & Dog fight's. The Badger would be staked to the ground
and be made to fight dog's until the dog's finally won. This was not normal
behavior for Badgers and they were put in these situations by humans.
Then the humans would say how visas they were. Left on there own they
would rather remain unseen as their first line of defense and fight as
a last resort.
We were worried about how the cat's would treat Badge when she wasn't
able to defend herself. The cats seemed to know what she was and never
would get to close to her even when she was helpless. As she got bigger
and could take care of herself she would try and get them to play with
her. Cat's being kind of snobbish critter's wouldn't play so Badge would
badger (I cant think of a better word) them when ever she got a chance
to. If she could get one of them in a corner she would lower her head
to protect her nose & eye's and ram into them with the top of her head
like a bulldozer. The cat would swat her but the only place they could
hit was the back of her head where her hide was to thick for them to hurt
her. I learned later that this is the same way badger's fight snakes.
When the snake strikes at the badger it grabs them in its mouth and shakes
it till its dead. One of the badgers main sources of food in some areas
is rattlesnake. We don't have rattlers in this area I had also seem her
use this same tactic with a piece of rope. She wasn't taught how to do
this she was born with the knowledge already inside her. Another thing
she would do to the cat's was if she found one sleeping on a chair (they
had given up on sleeping on the floor) Badge would get hold of the cat's
tail and pull it out of the chair. She never hurt them but she sure made
them mad. The tom cat finally moved out and stayed on the porch the other
cat stayed in the house but made sure she knew where Badge was all he
time.
At the end of the first summer we decided against Turning Badge loose.
She had no fear of people or other animals. Although she came persuaded
with a lot of knowledge when she was hungry she would sit in front of
the fringe until someone fed her. we still had the option to turn her
loose if she got mean later. A friend of mine had some property he said
we could put her on if we had to. Badge had also became very attached
to Susan and both of us to her but it was clear that she was Susans badger.
Badge was Susans protector if Susan yelled like she needed help Badge
would come running all teeth and claws ready to take on anything. When
ever Susan was gone for a few days badge would mope around like she had
lost her best friend. She would perk right up as soon as she came back
home. We wondered weather Badge would try to hibernate in the winter.
She didn't even try and was active all winter. I read later that a study
was done with Bears to find out what triggered the hibernation response.
It was found that the decreasing amount of daylight in the northern areas
does it. Animals living in captivity with artificial light do not try
to hibernate. Badge made a great watch badger we posted a sign that there
was an attack badger on the premises. When ever we had visitors the first
thing they wanted to know was ware she was before they would come in.
It also got rid of all door to door salesmen. On sunny days in the winter
she liked to lay on the porch. When we had company that were afraid of
her we put her in the bedroom with a gate across the door and she would
just go to sleep until we let her out.
We started taking Badge outside in July and letting her run loose in
our yard. She would follow Susan around like a puppy and wouldn't let
her out of her sight. She liked to roll and dig in grass clipings or leaf
piles. Badge was still small enough we didn't worry about her biting anyone.
A lot of people came to see her and ask what kind of animal she was. When
she got bigger we decided that we would have to build a pen for her to
be in outside. People would see her and think she was tame and try to
get to close she would warn them to stay away. If they got closer she
would go into her attack mode and go after them. So we had to build a
pen to protect people. Badge didn't mind being in the pen it seemed as
long as there was some kind of barrier between her and strangers it didn't
bother her for them to be there it wasn't much of a pen but she never
tried to get out. At dark though she was ready to come inside though.
She dug one sett and then caved it in after that she was happy to just
have an old blanket to get under. digging a set was something she was
born knowing how to do. she dug down a couple of feet then turned to the
right and went a little ways then dug out a sleeping room. I was told
all setts are dug in this manner for protection. If a cougar or a bear
tries to dig the badger up it can stand off to the side and attack without
being exposed. The reason they go to the right is so the intruder has
to reach in with it's left leg that way it is unable to look and reach
into the entrance at the same time. Badge spent most days in the summer
outside she liked to roll in fresh dirt so she would turn over the dirt
in her pen to keep it loosened up when she was ready to come in she would
shake a couple of times and all the dirt would fall off her it didn't
penetrate her fur because it was so thick. We took her out in the snow
and she didn't think to much of that she dug in it a little and rolled
around a bit then was ready to go back in and lay by the stove. So she
spent most of the winter inside. Once while Susan was visiting our daughter
in Va. I went to work at 2 p.m. and forgot to bring badge in before I
left when I got back home at 10 p.m. she let me know that she wasn't happy
about in because it had rained a little. She gave me the silent treatment
for a few days until she figured that I had learned not to do that again.
We had to keep her back claws clipped about every 4 mo's. She would bite
her front claws but she couldn't reach the back ones. I would hold her
in my lap and Sue would cut them with wire cutter's. A badger's back claws
grow curved inward and act like shovels when they push dirt behind them.
We also learned that a badger's life span in the wild is only 1 year due
to the high death rate of the young every year. We never could find anyone
who could tell us how long they would live in captivity.
Intelligence: We learned just how smart Badge was real quick. we had
to childproof the house again she could open anything she could reach.
She would open anything that didn't have a latch on it that she couldn't
reach. She would take everything out to see what it was. She could undo
zippers, snaps. buckles and untie knots just to get into something that
she wanted to. The first summer we tried to put her in a body harness
she got out of if in less time than it took to get it on her. We tried
all types but it didn't matter she would back up and the harness would
fall right off. She was built like a football pointed on both ends and
wide in the middle. A friend of mine was trying to get her to play with
him when she didn't want to so he would tap her on the head with his baseball
cap then pull it away when she tried to grab it after that whenever she
could get a baseball hat she would bite the button off the top of in.
She liked to nap on the sofa but couldn't get up on it on her own. We
were gone one day when we got home we found she had taken blankets and
what throw pillows she could reach and had built a ramp so she could get
on the sofa on her own. In some ways Badge was like a dog she was very
protective and loyal, in other ways she was like a cat by using a litter
box, when she had her ears or belly scratched she had a purr motor that
would put any cat to shame. As with any intelligent animal or person she
could also be stubborn as a mule. Once Badge learned to do something she
never forgot also when she got mad at someone she would never let them
forget. To keep her occupied all that was needed was a empty box she would
work until she got inside of it just to see if there was anything in it.
She also had a few chew toy's she liked to play with. When she woke up
she would always bring something with her from the bedroom a blanket or
a shoe or a toy and give it to Sue or me to trade for pet's or scratches.
Every spring we had to brush her with a wire curry brush to get her winter
undercoat off it was a real fine light brown fur. We would fill a paper
sack with all that came off her.
If we had to do it all over again I would only change a few of the things
we did. I would try to have more people handle & and feed the badger while
it was still nursing as she was not as testy with people she had spent
a lot of time with when she was young. I would also not feed her the skin
or fat on the chicken to try and hold down her weight. Also I would make
a larger pen outdoors protected from the weather so it could spend summers
outside. I cant recommend having a badger for a pet because they demand
a lot of attention but it would be a decision each person would have to
make on there own. I would in the same situation do the same thing we
did. It probably will never happen again. One thing that most people would
ask is how we could trust badge being loose in the house my answer was
that I trusted her a lot more than a lot of types of dog's because she
was predictable. Some dogs will turn on people for no reason at all Badge
always warned someone who was getting to close. Some of the other things
I learned about badgers are the easiest way to kill one is to give it
a hit on the nose if it gets a bloody nose there is so much mucus to keep
the dirt out that the blood will flow back to there lungs and they will
drowned so a swat on the nose is not the way to punish one. A swat on
the top of the head will do just as good and doesn't hurt them. The badger
& coyote are the two best examples of native American animals that in
over 300 years of man trying to exterminate them have survived all on
there own and probably always will. I have had numerous animals over the
years from skunk's, raccoons, injured Deer and about every type of ground
& tree squirrel. The Badger was by far the smartest, loyalist & bravest
of them all. Interview with Janet Mercer Positives of Badgers as pets? Negatives of Badgers as pets? Anecdotes/stories about badgers? Do they have scent glands or an offensive smell? What is their average lifespan? Do they enjoy interaction? What is their general personality, disposition, and
attitude? Are they sweet and petable, or mischievous and playful?
How destructive are they for an average household?
Do they climb or tear up furniture? Are there any problems associated with their claws?
How messy are their droppings? Can they be litter trained? Can they be trained? What size of cage do they need? What do you feed them? What vaccinations/vet care do they require? At what age would it be best to get one? What
kind of person should own these animals. |
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