Distribution.—Of general distribution over open country east of the Cascades. Marginal records are Wauconda ([Taylor] and [Shaw], 1929: 12), Chelan ([Taylor] and [Shaw], 1929: 13), Goldendale (W. W. D.) and "Divide above Trout Lake" (trapper's photograph).
Fig. 66. Badger (Taxidea taxus taxus), tame animal in Seattle, Washington. January 29, 1938. Captured at Lakeside, Chelan County, and photographed at approximate age of ten months; subadult male. (Eloise Kuntz photo).
Description.—The badger is the size of a small dog, measuring up to 32 inches in total length and weighing up to 20 pounds. The body is heavy, powerful and remarkably flat and compressed. The tail and legs are short. The forelegs are thick and strong, armed with long heavy claws for digging. The ears are wide and low. The color of the upper parts is a grizzled yellowish brown, not unlike the color of the yellow-bellied marmot. The underparts are buffy, often with a white area on the abdomen. The legs, feet, top of head, ears, and small areas on the cheeks are blackish. Triangular areas about the eyes are buffy. A white stripe extends from the nose pad backwards, between the eyes, to the shoulders and serves as the best recognition mark.
Fig. 67. Distribution of the badger, Taxidea taxus taxus, in Washington.
Badgers are found over central and western United States, Canada and northern Mexico. They are commonest on the plains and desert, principally because the burrowing mammals upon which they feed are most abundant there. The badger is a powerful and rapid digger, being able to overtake and capture mice, ground squirrels, and even pocket gophers. [Perry] (1939: 49-53) in her interesting accounts of the habits of a pet badger obtained at Lakeside, Chelan County, found the animal powerful enough to dig through a concrete floor! Evidence of badger's activities are usually seen at any ground squirrel colony in eastern Washington. This evidence consists of large holes in the ground. Rarely a horizontal tunnel begins at the depth of two to four feet and extends for an unknown distance. Earth removed in excavating is heaped beside one or both of the narrower sides of the surface opening.
In examining badger workings in ground squirrel colonies I have been impressed by the fact that most of the holes ended not more than four or five feet from the entrances—perhaps at the places where the ground squirrel nests were located, although it may be that the digging of the badger so terrified the squirrels that they dashed out in an attempt to escape past the badger, before he reached the nests. Kangaroo rats and pocket mice often attempt to escape by dashing past a person when he is excavating their burrows.