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Image: Eurasian badger (Meles meles).
Home » Eurasian badger (Meles meles) » Articles :
Find out about the colouration, weights and measurements of the Eurasian badger.
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General appearance | Measurements | Colouration | Related Badger Pages
The badger looks rather like a small bear, but with a more elongated body and shorter legs. The forelegs are well developed and are equipped with long, strong claws.
Adult males measure around 90 cm in length (including a tail of around 15 cm), and weigh anything from 9 kg to 17 kg (mean average about 11.5 kg). Females are usualy slightly shorter, and lighter: from 6.5 kg to 14 kg (mean average about 10 kg). The weights of both sexes vary over the year, being at their greatest at the beginning of winter, and at their lowest at the end of that season.
[Image]
The Eurasian Badger,
Meles meles.
The Eurasian badger's striking black and white striped face is well known. The facial pattern does however vary across the badger's large geographic range. There is for example a considerable amount of variation in Japan. The Japanese badger's stripes start, as with other badgers, at the muzzle, and continue along each side of the face, around the eyes and up towards the ears. However, while the stripes of the western badgers then run up to and around the ears (which, being white, are conspicuous), the stripes of the Japanese badgers turn inwards towards the top of the head, missing the ears. In some individuals the stripes actually converge on the top of the head. In others meanwhile, the stripes are much reduced and in some there are only dark, panda-like patches around the eyes.
The badger's body appears grey, but a close look at the fur on its back and sides reveals that the hairs are not grey at all. Each hair is white with a black band near the tip, and it is this mixture of black and white which gives the badger its grey appearance. The badger's throat, neck, chest, belly and legs meanwhile are all covered with a coat of black fur, which is often sparse on the belly. The tail is whitish, sometimes darker, especially on the upperside.
Picture © Steve Jackson. See the Photo File .
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