Although you may live in an area where the badger is common, it would not be surprising if you had never seen this animal, for it is abroad principally at night. However, its presence is usually well known by the abundance of its diggings. The badger is excellently equipped to dig, with powerful forelegs tipped with long, strong claws. It is squat and streamlined for getting through—not over—the ground. More than once, a group of men have cornered a badger in a shallow burrow, but one badger with its own digging apparatus extended the burrow faster than the crew of men could shovel. When pursuing or pursued, the badger never rests on its “shovels”, but keeps them going at such a rapid pace that the tunnel behind is soon filled with moved dirt. The front legs loosen the dirt and push it under the animal, where the hind legs pick up the process and continue the earth on out behind. The operation proceeds like an endless track, without a wasted motion. As many as ten men, all equipped with shovels, have failed to keep up with the excavating of a badger, and the latter has escaped their intents. Ten men against a 30-pound badger! No wonder it has been called a master excavator. With the powerful front legs, the badger is not readily deterred in its burrowing. I have seen where a badger had decided to come to the surface from its subterranean burrow beneath a heavily macadamized road. The well-packed rocks, gravel, and tar, some four or five inches thick, were torn away and a sizeable hole made as if no roadway were there. A captive badger was given the run of a concrete basement. This seemed like a safe enough place. However, the animal found a crack and enlarged it until he was successful in removing a piece of concrete.
The badger is yellowish gray in color, with a conspicuous white stripe on the head, extending from the nose over the forehead, and disappearing on the back. Because the animal belongs to the weasel and skunk family, it possesses scent glands and a strong odor which is emitted only infrequently. When tormented, the badger holds its stubby tail erect, skunk-fashion, and hisses in a menacing way.
In Illinois, the badger is at home on the rolling, sandy prairies, as well as on prairies with heavier soils. Franklin ground squirrels, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, woodchucks, and meadow mice provide food for the badger population. When prey is sensed in the badger’s underground burrow, the dirt flies until the hunter has it securely in mouth. Snakes, frogs, insects, and rabbits also are eaten; and because the majority of these items in its diet are pests of man, the badger is considered a most important animal in northern Illinois in keeping small mammals in check and is vastly underrated as a natural control of many of our pests. To condemn the woodchuck and badger, or the ground squirrel and badger, in the same breath would be like despising both garbage and the garbage man.