Wisconsin?
How about those Buckeye Badgers?
Article from Nov
- Dec 2006 Buckeye Trapper
by Jared
Duquette
It’s been a great morning on the trap line and you’ve
caught about 10 hours worth of skinning work. Your spirits are
high when you come to the last set and it looks like a bomb went
off around your trap. You think to yourself, “What on God’s
green Earth is going on here?” You slowly walk up to the
trap thinking World War III has started and then your jaw drops
like a 100 lb. bag of shelled corn. It’s one of those long-clawed
devils that would like nothing more than to chase you into the
next county, also known as a badger.
These fascinating animals are a creature of great folklore because
of their incredible digging ability. It has been said that in
a race, a badger can even out dig a man with a shovel. They rely
on this digging (or fossorial) adaptation to burrow out and secure
ground dwelling prey and establish dens to raise young. As many
trappers can vouch for, badgers are quite mean, especially when
confronted in a trap. Badgers use this tenacity to fend off larger,
more mobile species such as coyotes or bears. Although badgers
are incidentally caught and occasionally seen in Ohio each year,
many folks do not know much about these animals or even know they
exist in the state.
Badgers are a native species in Ohio, which is considered the
eastern edge of their geographic distribution. The American badger
(Taxidea taxus) is one of six species of badger in the world,
including the Eurasian badger, Stink badger, Hog badger, Ferret
badger, and Indonesian badger. Badgers are a member of the weasel
family and are generally 12-30 pounds and 20-35 inches long. The
body is stout and laterally flattened with a short neck and wedge-shaped
head. These animals are characterized by their long, curved front
claws, black triangular patches or “badges” adjacent
to the eyes, and a white facial stripe starting from the nose
and extending occasionally the length of the body. Due to their
nocturnal habits and burrowing behavior these solitary animals
are rarely seen and may often be mistaken for woodchucks or raccoons.
Research has found that these animals have three primary biological
seasons, breeding (July-Oct.), rearing (Mar.-June), and dormant
(Nov.-Feb.). Unlike true hibernation, badgers go into torpor where
they are still active during the winter, but greatly reduce their
movements and activity to a minimum. Interestingly, badgers are
delayed implanters, which allows the female to delay the implantation
of the egg into the uterus until late winter when the young can
then be born during favorable conditions in the spring. This is
a common adaptation in many other members of the weasel family
and other species, such as the grizzly bear and nine-banded armadillo.
Badgers typically have 1-4 young per year and have been shown
to live up to 10-12 years in the wild.
On a national level, badgers are considered a furbearer but have
traditionally been of little value on the national market because
of their coarse hair. In the past, pelts have typically been used
for paint brushes or shaving brushes, but are most commonly harvested
for novelty or nuisance. The average price of a badger pelt, like
many furbearers, is highly dependent on geographic location and
market demand. Historic average prices have been variable with
a low of around $4 in the western U.S. and a high of around $50
in Alberta, Canada. While badgers are very common and harvested
in many states, they are protected statewide in Ohio as a Species
of Concern. They were given this classification by the Division
of Wildlife (DOW) in 2002 because relatively little is known about
the status of the population and therefore they may be threatened
by any form of harvest.
Although consumptive harvest may only take a small portion of
the population, potential habitat loss is another issue in the
overall sustainability of this species, further emphasizing the
need for protection. Before extensive European settlement, badgers
most likely existed in the large prairie pockets of the state.
Today, much of this native prairie has been lost to development
and agriculture and may have reduced the amount of optimal badger
habitat. However, it has been suggested that the large deforestation
in the 1800’s may have allowed the badger to expand its
distribution in the state. In this agriculturally fragmented landscape,
badgers may greatly rely on undisturbed areas such as abandoned
fields, railroads, and hedgerows where prey may concentrate. Nevertheless
these are just assumptions based on observations, and as many
of us know, assumptions can sometimes lead you down the wrong
road. This is particularly true when trying to establish conservation
objectives for a relatively unknown species. However, in 2005
the ODOW and The Ohio State University (OSU) began a collaborative
statewide research study to assess badger ecology and distribution
in Ohio.
The goals of this study are to evaluate the habitat associations,
distribution, and relative abundance of badgers in Ohio. In addition,
researchers are investigating the age and sex structure, disease
and parasite associations, and diet of these animals. All of the
findings from this study will then be assembled into a final conservation
management plan for the badger in Ohio. The findings from this
study will then help to determine if the badger should remain
protected in Ohio or possibly be open to a limited trapping season.
This study will be beneficial to not only Ohio, but also the rest
of the U.S. because very little research has been done on badgers,
especially in the Midwest.
To evaluate the habitat use and movements of badgers, project
researchers are affixing each badger with a tracking transmitter
that is attached to an individually fitted nylon harness [see
photo]. This transmitter then emits a beep that is specific to
each animal and can be located with an antenna and receiver. Many
of you are probably familiar with this technique, as it is commonly
used to keep tabs on raccoon or hunting dogs. The home-range size
and movements of each animal can then be determined by repeatedly
locating each badger throughout the year. Surprisingly, a study
in eastern central Illinois in 1995 found that a breeding male
badger had a home-range size of 26 square miles, pretty good for
a raccoon sized critter. For those who are familiar with a badger’s
temper and are wondering, yes, they are being sedated before attaching
the transmitter.
The study is also relying on collected carcasses (e.g. road kills)
to determine the age, sex, diet, etc. of the badger population.
Currently, researchers have 22 carcasses at OSU where they will
begin to necropsy each animal this winter to record this biological
information. The states of Michigan and Indiana are also donating
carcasses to assist in further evaluating badger ecology in the
Midwest. Past studies in the western states have found that badgers
primarily eat small burrowing prey such as ground squirrels or
prairie dogs, but also eat some insects, reptiles, and bird eggs.
In Ohio, badgers are probably feeding on similar prey such as
thirteen-lined ground squirrels, chipmunks, and woodchucks. Also,
our badgers are probably similar in sex ratio to those in other
studies that have found similar results across the U.S., with
a ratio of one male to one female. Once again, these are only
early ideas based on similar studies, but will be revealed by
the end of the study in late 2007.
Due to limited trapping personnel and the sparse distribution
of badgers, this study is relying heavily on buckeye trappers
to report and hold incidental captures. Like many studies, the
more animals we can get the more information we will know about
these fascinating animals. Trapper assistance is crucial because
the badger is a furbearer and needs to be studied in order to
determine the status of this species in the state, particularly
for any consideration of future harvest. To report past badger
observations please call the badger report line at (614) 688-4289
or your county wildlife officer/district office. Please try to
detain any incidental badger captures and call Jared Duquette
at (989) 798-6619, who will come get the animal from the trap.
A badger observation report website has also been linked off of
the ODOW website and a large informational poster with pre-paid
observational cards can be found at each ODOW district office
and several wildlife areas.
Thank you to all of you that have already assisted in this study
and those of you who can be of assistance in the future. You can
be assured that your tax dollars are hard at work to research
these native furbearers in anticipation of finding the what, where,
and how of these amazing animals. ###Jared Duquette, School
of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University.
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