Features: The American Badger (Taxidea taxus) is a large carnivore in the mustelid or weasel family and has the elongated body shape, short legs, and anal scent glands characteristic of the group. The American Badger is gray, with bold black and white stripes on the head and face. Badgers vary across their range, however, and taxonomists place the Ontario populations in a subspecies (T. t. jacksoni). Darker, tawnier, and slightly smaller overall than T. taxus, T. t. jacksoni was originally described from Wisconsin and Minnesota, but badgers in northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southwestern and northwestern Ontario are also ‘jacksoni’.

In Ontario, badgers are found in remnant tallgrass prairie, sand barrens and farmland, where they range widely hunting for woodchucks, rabbits, and small rodents. Prey are normally dug out of their burrows, and the long, strong claws, streamlined skull, and a second transparent eyelid (nictitating membrane), which can be closed to protect the cornea from dirt, are all adaptations to a digging lifestyle. Nictitating membranes are also present in diving birds such as the kingfisher.

Badgers also dig burrows for their resting and nesting sites. Solitary for most of the year, adult males and females only get together to mate in late summer, when females are in peak condition and are most fertile. After mating, the fertilized egg travels to the uterus and develops into a blastocyst (a hollow ball of cells that is the precursor to the embryo). However, unlike most mammals, the blastocyst does not attach soon after, but instead floats free in an arrested state for about six months over winter, when females are semi-dormant. Delaying pregnancy means fat reserves can be accumulated in the fall and then used first by the adult for winter survival, before being diverted to the growing embryos later. It also means that cubs are born in the spring, when temperatures are warmer and food is available again. This unusual reproductive behaviour is called delayed implantation, or embryonic diapause, and it occurs in some other mustelids and across other taxa.

Status: Endangered Provincially and Nationally

Range: The American Badger ranges across much of the western United States and Canada, from central Canada west to California, south to Texas and east to the Great Lakes region. In Canada, it occurs in southern British Columbia, all prairie provinces and Ontario. The subspecies, jacksoni, has a very restricted distribution around the western Great Lakes and, in addition to Ontario, is only found in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. In Ontario, the badger is found in ten counties and regional municipalities in the southwestern part of the province, mostly close to Lake Erie in Haldimand-Norfolk County, and in northwestern Ontario in the Thunder Bay and Rainy River Districts.There are thought to be less than 200 individuals in Ontario. Range Maps

Threats: American Badgers do not appear to have ever been common in Ontario, but population declines likely occurred as open grassland habitat was converted to farmland. They have few natural enemies in Ontario (possibly coyotes), and the main threats are habitat loss and susceptibility to being hit by cars.

Protection: Protection provided by Ontario's Endangered Species Act, 2007 prohibits actions such as killing, capturing, possessing, and selling or trading this species. Badger dens are protected under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. Nearly all the sites in Ontario where the badger lives are on private land. For information on recovery initiatives for the American Badger in Ontario, visit the Species at Risk Public Registry website.

Text Sources: Newhouse and Kinley 1999

Last Modified Date: October 2008