Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers --Oohh a snake!
May 12, 2007 9:48 PM   Subscribe

Badgers--fierce, secretive, beloved, reviled, surprisingly widespread, and enemy to snakes [Warning: Gore in "Snakes"]. Cousin to ferrets and weasels, badgers have some strange habits--such as digging a large new burrow to sleep in every night.
posted by agentofselection (24 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was surprised to learn that I have badgers practically in my back yard-- in the San Francisco Bay area!
Note: scroll down on "widespread" for global distribution map.
posted by agentofselection at 9:49 PM on May 12, 2007


This post is incomplete without www.whatbadgerseat.com.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:56 PM on May 12, 2007


This post is incomplete without badger badger badger.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:01 PM on May 12, 2007 [1 favorite]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_badger
Its ferocious reputation extends to attacks on animals much larger than itself. Several African tribes report that the honey badger attacks the scrotum of larger mammals if provoked and has even castrated humans. While these reports remain uncorroborated by firsthand evidence, there is some circumstantial evidence such as remains of castrated waterbuck and gnu found in Kruger National Park.[citation needed]
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:12 PM on May 12, 2007


My first comment on metafilter and I'm following up the badger badger badger with another species: footy.

Much more fun than the first.
posted by valentinepig at 10:17 PM on May 12, 2007


DEFRA's (UK agriculture ministry) badger cull is a horrible policy. I recall reading that a better and cheaper solution would be to fence off toilet areas, as badgers use the same sites to defecate and it would only be through faeces that TB transmission could occur, if at all.
posted by Abiezer at 10:17 PM on May 12, 2007


Badger my ass...
posted by jvilter at 10:27 PM on May 12, 2007


...and the dogs bred to kill them.
posted by koeselitz at 10:44 PM on May 12, 2007


I was curious where badger hair shaving brushes come from. The answer? China.
posted by zamboni at 10:45 PM on May 12, 2007


"Objection your honor..."
posted by wendell at 11:01 PM on May 12, 2007


Awesome. Post's like are precisely why I pay $40 month for internet access.

Besides, we don't need in no stinking badger's, here in B.C.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 11:33 PM on May 12, 2007


Am I the only one who read [Warning: Gore in "Snakes"] as "Al Gore is in this video of badgers and snakes"?
posted by po at 11:59 PM on May 12, 2007


Were I not a human plate of beans, and I had my volition to choose a place in nature, I would definitely choose mustilidae.

Lolcats gots nothing on lolmustilidae.
Heart the badgers. Great post!
posted by isopraxis at 12:04 AM on May 13, 2007


ya gotta love the badger
posted by caddis at 1:03 AM on May 13, 2007


My wife and I recently came across a children's book that had the phrase "kind Mr. Badger" next to a smiling anthropomorphized badger. We both shuddered, and decided not to ever buy anything by that author for our nieces and nephews. I think we had the same mental image of a toddler trying to pet a badger and getting bitten to hell for it.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:29 AM on May 13, 2007


po: no, that was my first read too. Capital-G Gore is quite different than lowercase-g gore. :)
posted by Malor at 6:15 AM on May 13, 2007


Then of course there is the Wolverine. (warning, this is a youtube video of a wolf and a wolverine squaring off).
posted by caddis at 6:22 AM on May 13, 2007


There is a truely excellent documentary on the honey badger, for which I can only find a couple links and no videos. It was called "The Meanest Animal on Earth". If you ever get the chance to watch it...
posted by batou_ at 7:07 AM on May 13, 2007


If you're attacked by a badger, just jump over it. Keep doing this until it gives up or turns into another animal, like a fox, who might be friendlier. I learned this in my dream last night.
posted by homunculus at 9:31 AM on May 13, 2007 [6 favorites]


Badger my ass. It's probably Milhouse.
posted by ninjew at 9:44 AM on May 13, 2007


We both shuddered, and decided not to ever buy anything by that author for our nieces and nephews. I think we had the same mental image of a toddler trying to pet a badger and getting bitten to hell for it.

The eurasian badger is relatively gentle. They won't fight unless they're cornered. Thus, they are generally considered to be a pleasant animal in places like Britain.

Unlike the American badger, which can and does attack such diverse desert objects as coyotes, eagles, and vans full of New Mexico Tech Geology 101 students.
posted by vorfeed at 9:48 AM on May 13, 2007


This great post is incomplete without some shitty cover band version of the Dead Milkmen's "I Want to Make Friends with the Badger."
posted by LarryC at 11:08 AM on May 13, 2007


From zamboni's shaving brush link: In addition, sometimes a customer has mentioned hearing that badger are sheared like sheep and ask if this is true? Mr. Watterson indicated that from his vantage point badger are not sheared like sheep.

This is why we as a species need to evolve. Some distant day, centuries from now, there will be someone badass enough to fill the job of "Badger Shearer". And he will be worshipped as a god.

I love badgers, the thrill of seeing one irately shuffle his way across a freshly-turned field almost made sitting in an unairconditioned tractor for 10 hours bearable.
Almost.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 PM on May 13, 2007




« Older We're Your New Gods   |   The Polar Bears of Spitsbergen Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments