American badger
A short, wide-bodied digger with a white-striped face, common on the grasslands of Yellowstone and Badlands, that can vanish underground in minutes.
American badger at a glance
Taxidea taxus BA-jer; Taxidea taxus is tak-SID-ee-uh TAK-sus
- Type
- Mammal · weasels
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Size
- 22 to 28 inches long, 13 to 25 pounds — about the size and weight of a fat housecat, but built low and wide, like a shovel with legs.
- Lifespan
- Can live up to 14 years in the wild.
- Conservation
- Least concern
Eats ground squirrels, pocket gophers, small rodents, ground-nesting bird eggs
A badger digs straight down after its prey, chasing ground squirrels and pocket gophers through their own burrows. It needs to eat about two of them a day to hold its weight.
Should you worry?
Badgers would rather dig away than fight and avoid people entirely. Give a burrow entrance space, keep dogs leashed nearby, and never reach into a hole.
By the time you hear dirt hitting the grass behind you, the badger is already three feet down. It doesn’t sprint from danger the way a rabbit does — it simply digs, faster than almost anything alive, and the ground itself becomes the escape route. That same speed is how it eats: a badger needs about two ground squirrels or pocket gophers a day to keep its weight up, and it gets them by chasing them straight down their own tunnels, out-digging an animal that lives underground for a living.
The body does the work a chase would do for another predator. Short legs, a wide flat skull, claws built like a set of hand shovels — a badger is built low and stout because digging fast is its entire hunting strategy, not a backup plan. It’s also why you rarely see the animal itself on a grassland walk. What you find instead is the mound: a pile of fresh, dark dirt kicked out of a burrow entrance, evidence of a meal that happened out of sight, underground, sometime in the night.
Badgers aren’t true hibernators — they can go a month without leaving the den in the coldest stretch of winter, then they’re back at the mounds again, needing two more squirrels a day to make up for it. Come back to a fresh dig at dusk, when a badger is more likely to still be working, and you might catch the actual moment: a spray of dirt flying out of the hole, one wide-bodied animal chasing its dinner two turns down a tunnel it didn’t dig yesterday.
Did you know?
- A badger needs to eat about two ground squirrels or pocket gophers a day to keep its weight up, so it is almost always digging.
- Badgers use delayed implantation: they mate in late summer, but the pregnancy doesn't really start until around February, timing the birth for spring.
- Badgers aren't true hibernators, but they can stay inactive in their dens for up to a month during the coldest stretch of winter.
Common questions
Are badgers dangerous to people?
No. Badgers avoid people and would rather dig away than confront anyone. Keep dogs leashed near a burrow and never reach into a hole.
What do badgers eat?
Mostly ground squirrels and pocket gophers — about two a day — plus other small rodents and ground-nesting bird eggs.
How big do badgers get?
22 to 28 inches long and 13 to 25 pounds, built low, wide, and stout for digging.
Do badgers hibernate?
Not really. They can stay inactive underground for up to a month in the coldest part of winter, but they aren't true hibernators.
Where can you spot a badger in a national park?
Look for a fresh dirt mound at a burrow entrance on open grassland. You're far more likely to find the evidence of digging than the badger itself, which does most of its digging at night.