BADGER (Mika, Cuvier), a genus of Plantigrade Carnivorous Mammals included by Linnaeus among the Bears, but, as well as the Gluttons, Racoons, Coatis, fie., very properly separated from that group by succeeding naturalists.
This genus, as definitely characterised by modern zoologists, is distinguished by a system of dentition which is in many respects analogous to that of the Moufettes (Mephitis), a genus of Carnirora, which indeed is scarcely to be recognised as differing from the badgers except in the plantigrade or rather semi-plantigrade formation of their extremities. There is nothing remarkable either in the size or number of the incisor or canine teeth ; the grinders however are in seine respects peculiar, and it is this part of the dentition which principally distinguishes the Badgers. There are 4 false molars in the upper and 8 in the under jaw, 2 and 4 on each side respectively, followed by a carnasaier and a single tuberculous tooth of largo dimensions. The whole system is better adapted for masticating and bruising vegetable substances than for cutting and tearing raw flesh ; and in fact the Badgers are much less carnivorous than any other animal of the order to which they belong, except perhaps the bears. The quality of the food is in all cases necessarily dependent upon the nature of the dentition. The principal character of the feet in the badgers consists in their having five toes both before and behind, shOrt, strong, deeply buried in the flesh, and furnished with powerful compressed claws, admirably calculated for burrowing or turning up the earth in search of roots. The legs are short and muscular ; the body broad, flat, and compact ; the head more or less prolonged ; the snout pointed ; the ears small, and the tail short. Beneath the anus there is an aperture of considerable size which opens transversely, and exudes from its inner surface a greasy or oleaginous matter of very offensive odour. The same formation is observed in many other genera of carnivorous mammals, though the qualities of the substance secreted differ according to the species. In the Civets and Genets, for instance, its smell is so pleasing as to entitle it to the rank of a perfume ; whilst in the Moufettes, on the contrary, its odour is so extremely fetid as to have acquired for them above all other animals the generic name of Mephites, or Stinkards.
The Badgers sleep all day at the bottom of their burrows, and move about during the night in search of food. They are frequently accused of destroying rabbits, game, and even young lambs ; but roots and fallen fruits appear to constitute the chief part of their food, and they certainly exhibit a more marked taste for vegetable than for animal food, at least when kept in confinement. With the powerful claws of their fore feet they construct a deep and commodious burrow, generally in a sandy or light gravelly soil ; this has but a single entrance from without, but it afterwards divides into different chambers, and terminates in a round apartment at the bottom, which is well lined with dry grass and hay. The habits of the badgers are extremely solitary ; they are never found in company even with the females of their own species, and as they sleep all day rolled up in their bed of warm hay at the bottom of their holes, they are always fat and in good condition : their flesh is relished in many places as an article of food. They carefully remove everything of an offensive nature from their earths, never deposit their excrements in the vici nity of their habitations, and are even said to abandon them if acci dentally or intentionally polluted by any other creature. In its geographical distribution the genus extends throughout the whole of Europe, Northern and Central Asia, and North America : we have no accounts of its extending into Africa or South America, in the former of which continents it appears to be represented by the Rattel (Gulo Desmarest), and in the latter by various species of Moufettes (Mephitis). Australia possesses no species of mammal belonging to the Plantigrade Family, at least none has been hitherto discovered in that country; and in-the Eastern Peninsula and Isles of India the place of the Badger is supplied by the Telsgon (Mydaus meliceps, F. envier).