Badgers are short-legged members in the weasel family, with a black and white
striped body. Although classed as a carnivore, with its large canine teeth, it
eats all sorts of things including earthworms, beetles, mice, frogs, snails,
wasps, acorns, bulbs, fruits and roots. Badgers usually live in woods and
copses, in burrows underground (called setts), in groups (or clans) of up to 15.
They are nocturnal.
Fun fact: badgers have excellent hearing and smell, but they don't see
very well!
We've got a great collection of badger printables - everything from bookmarks to jigsaws, writing paper to notebooking paper, door signs and acrostics and a lot more in between! Badger printables
The owner of a conservation centre for badgers takes
her charges for a walk before feeding time.
NB: Please do not allow children to browse video sharing sites unsupervised.
Badgers In Stories
Trufflehunter the Badger features in CS Lewis's Prince Caspian. There is also a
Badger in Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. But perhaps the most famous Badger in
children's literature is Toad's friend in The Wind In The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.
He first appears in the book when Rat and Mole are lost in the snow, and knock
on his door for help:
* * *
THEY waited patiently for what seemed a very long time,
stamping in the snow to keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of
slow shuffling footsteps approaching the door from the inside. It seemed, as the
Mole remarked to the Rat, like some one walking in carpet slippers that were too
large for him and down at heel; which was intelligent of Mole, because that was
exactly what it was.
There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door
opened a few inches, enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking
eyes.
'Now, the VERY next time this happens,' said a gruff
and suspicious voice, 'I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it THIS time,
disturbing people on such a night? Speak up!'
'Oh, Badger,' cried the Rat, 'let us in, please. It's
me, Rat, and my friend Mole, and we've lost our way in the snow.'
'What, Ratty, my dear little man!' exclaimed the
Badger, in quite a different voice. 'Come along in, both of you, at once. Why,
you must be perished. Well I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too,
and at this time of night! But come in with you.'
The two animals tumbled over each other in their
eagerness to get inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and
relief.
The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose
slippers were indeed very down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw
and had probably been on his way to bed when their summons sounded. He looked
kindly down on them and patted both their heads. 'This is not the sort of night
for small animals to be out,' he said paternally. 'I'm afraid you've been up to
some of your pranks again, Ratty. But come along; come into the kitchen. There's
a first-rate fire there, and supper and everything.'
