For those that have been following my road trip of 65 zoos in 20 days, you will recall from my swing through Wisconsin that I saw innumerable badgers at practically every single small zoo. I found out that the state's animal symbol is an American Badger and that explains why they are everywhere and anywhere in Wisconsin. However, from informally chatting with visitors I have yet to meet anyone who has physically seen a badger in the wild.
here's a question: why are badgers so consistently awesome? I mean, look at the one in the photo above. She simply exudes awesomeness!
I have only seen two species in real life, but I have seen photos of all the species I think (as well as the famous honey badger Youtube video of course), and every single one of them just looks like it is -- and, more importantly, looks like it knows it is -- the greatest animal on the planet.
I think it's a mustelid characteristic. They just don't give a damn about anything and they know no fear at all. That's why stoats are such a nuisance in NZ, as soon as they arrived they started acting as if they owned the place and I'm sure they still do. Just be glad no-one introduced badgers or wolverines
For those that have been following my road trip of 65 zoos in 20 days, you will recall from my swing through Wisconsin that I saw innumerable badgers at practically every single small zoo. I found out that the state's animal symbol is an American Badger and that explains why they are everywhere and anywhere in Wisconsin. However, from informally chatting with visitors I have yet to meet anyone who has physically seen a badger in the wild.
I appreciate that American Badger is neither a close relative to Eurasian Badger, nor does it have a similar ecological niche. But it is interesting that it is such an elusive beast, when Meles meles has become a very familiar one in the UK.
