The badger is yellowish gray in color, with a conspicuous white stripe on the head, extending from the nose over the forehead, and disappearing on the back. Because the animal belongs to the weasel and skunk family, it possesses scent glands and a strong odor which is emitted only infrequently. When tormented, the badger holds its stubby tail erect, skunk-fashion, and hisses in a menacing way.
In Illinois, the badger is at home on the rolling, sandy prairies, as well as on prairies with heavier soils. Franklin ground squirrels, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, woodchucks, and meadow mice provide food for the badger population. When prey is sensed in the badger’s underground burrow, the dirt flies until the hunter has it securely in mouth. Snakes, frogs, insects, and rabbits also are eaten; and because the majority of these items in its diet are pests of man, the badger is considered a most important animal in northern Illinois in keeping small mammals in check and is vastly underrated as a natural control of many of our pests. To condemn the woodchuck and badger, or the ground squirrel and badger, in the same breath would be like despising both garbage and the garbage man.
Badgers have a single litter of young each year in May or June. The young are cared for in a nest at the end of a protective subterranean burrow. In wintertime, badgers are said to hibernate, but they do not do so in the strict sense of the word. They may become inactive during periods of extreme cold, but they do not enter into the deep sleep, with reduced metabolic activities, that the woodchucks and ground squirrels do in Illinois.
In our State, the badger has few, if any, enemies, other than man. Man traps the badger, makes unusable some of its preferred habitat, poisons off the squirrels and woodchucks which are its preferred source of food, and runs it down on the highway. The fur of the badger nowadays has little or no value, but in former years it was in demand, and a badger hide, at inflated prices, would have been worth as much as ten dollars. Conservationists maintain that it is unwise not to give some protection to one of our most interesting mammals, a potentially valuable fur-bearer, and a foremost controller of rodent pests.
May the “diggings” of the badger, the next time you encounter them, thrill you with the thoughts of one of Illinois’ first and foremost engineers, a master excavator.
SCIENCE ADVENTURE PROGRAM FOR SCHOOL AGE YOUNG PEOPLE
by Milton D. Thompson, Assistant Director
There will be two identical programs each Saturday this fall, on four consecutive Saturdays from October 31 to November 21, one at 9:00 A.M. and the second at 10:30 A.M. in the auditorium of the Centennial Building. This double program is offered in response to the tremendous crowds with standing room only which we experienced last spring. We will have room for between 1200 and 1300 persons each Saturday. Parents and group leaders are invited to attend with their young people. We appreciate a few adults scattered through the audience.
Out-of-town groups making reservations in advance will have a block of seats reserved for them until five minutes before starting time. These Saturday morning programs and a visit to the Museum, Lincoln’s Home, Lincoln’s Tomb, and perhaps a trip out to New Salem make a wonderful weekend excursion for your club or class, and these interesting places are not nearly as crowded in the fall as in the spring.