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The Family Lives of the Other Badgers
None of the other badgers live in groups like the European badgers. Mostly, they live alone.
American badgers wander over large areas (or ranges) which overlap, but they rarely meet up. When they do meet up, a fight may well break out! Like all badgers, the American species has fearsome teeth (see picture above), so fights can be savage.
Usually, the only times when two or more American badgers get together is when a male and female meet up to mate, or when females are rearing their cubs. The same goes for the other badger species. However, honey badgers are sometimes seen in twos, threes, or even larger groups. This usually happens in places where there is a good food supply.
Cubs American badgers give birth in March or April. As with the European badger, the usual litter size is two or three, but single cubs and litters of four or five may also be born. The new-born cubs have a covering of short, soft hair. They are blind at birth; their eyes open when they are around four to six weeks old.
The mother badger suckles her cubs for about 12 weeks or so. Then she brings dead rodents and other small animals back to the den for her cubs to eat. Just like their European cousins, American badger cubs like to play. Some people have been lucky enough to see them playing at den entrances.
The cubs leave their home some time after after their mother has stopped suckling them and they can find food for themselves. Sometimes they leave quickly, but sometimes the cubs may stay with their mother until late summer or autumn. Each cub wanders until it finds its own patch. This can sometimes be as far as 100 kilometres away from the place where it was born!
Very few people have studied hog badgers, so we know very little about their life in the wild. In zoos, hog badgers have given birth in February, to litters of two to four cubs. In the wild, one litter of new-born cubs was found in April. This was in China. The cubs are said to be very playful animals, like young European badgers. In zoos, young hog badgers have reached adult size at the age of seven to eight months.
Not many people have studied ferret badgers either. In southern Taiwan, it has been found that the Chinese ferret badger gives birth to one litter of cubs each year. The litter size is always two, and the young may be born at any time between May and December. They leave home when they are two to three months old. In China itself, it is reported that the ferret badger gives birth in May or June, to a litter of one to five young.
Sadly, nothing is known about when stink badgers have their young, or how many young they have.
Honey badgers give birth at different times of the year. It may depend on the part of the world where they live. In southern Africa, births have been recorded from October to February. In Turkemania in Asia however, the young are always born in the spring.
The usual litter size for honey badgers is two. When they are first born, the young are naked apart from a little hair on the face. Their fur soon grows however. By the time their eyes open at the age of 5 weeks, they have the markings of adult honey badgers. The young probably start coming above ground at the age of two to three months.
Young honey badgers may stay with their mothers for a long time before they leave for a life of their own. One honey badger in South Africa stayed with her mother for at least a year!
Go forward to: The Home of the European Badger Go forward to: The Homes of the Other Badgers © Steve Jackson 1999-2001, unless otherwise stated. Material on these pages may be copied for personal, educational or other non-commercial use, as long as the source is acknowledged. |
