The Proto-Germanic term was *ÑŽahsu- (German Dachs), probably from the PIE root *tek'- "to construct," so that the badger would have been named after its digging of setts (tunnels).
The honey badger consumes honey, porcupines, and even venomous snakes (such as the puff adder).
Badgers consume a wide variety of animal and plant life, including earthworms, insects, small vertebrates, and roots and fruit.
The behavior of badgers differs by subfamily, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts.
Two animals with the common name badger, the Javan stink badger (Mydaus javanensis) and the Palawan stink badger (Mydaus marchei) are now in the Mephitidae family and are not discussed in this article.
Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals such as wolves, coyotes, and bears.
Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies.
Typical badgers (Meles, Arctonyx, Taxidea, and Mellivora species) are short-legged and heavy-set.
Scandinavian custom is to put eggshells or styrofoam in one's boots when walking through badger territory, as badgers are believed to bite down until they can hear a crunch.
Badgers can run or gallop at up to 25 to 30 kilometers per hour for short periods of time.
Badgers are part of the largest family in Carnivora, the Mustelidae family, which includes the weasels, stoats, wolverines, otters, martens, and minks, among others.
Hunting has been facilitated by the extensive logging prevalent throughout the Congo's rainforests, which allows hunters much easier access to previously unreachable jungle terrain, while simultaneously eroding habitats.
Today, badgers are commercially raised for their hair, which is harvested to make shaving brushes.
An older term for "badger" is brock (Old English brocc), a Celtic loanword (Gaelic broc, Welsh broch, from Proto-Celtic *brokko) meaning gray (Weiner and Simpson 1989).
A male badger is a boar, a female a sow, and a young badger is a cub.
Badgers are fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs.
The family Mustelidae also includes the similar ferrets, weasels, wolverines, otters, stoats, and fishers, with the badgers being those mustelids in the three subfamilies of Melinae, Mellivorinae, and Taxideinae, depending on the taxonomic scheme.
Badgers have a fierce reputation when defending themselves from predators, and thus the adult badger has few natural enemies, although they may be taken by large carnivores, such as wolves and lynx.
Eight extant species, placed in five genera, are recognized as badgers.
Some consider badgers to be those mustelids that comprise the subfamily Melinae.
The Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included in the Melinae, but recent genetic evidence indicates that these are actually Old World relatives of the skunks (family Mephitidae).
The diet of the omnivorous Eurasian badger consists largely of earthworms, insects, and grubs.
The family Mustelidae also includes the similar ferrets, weasels, wolverines, otters, stoats, and fishers, with the badgers being those mustelids in the three subfamilies of Melinae, Mellivorinae, and Taxideinae, depending on the taxonomic scheme.