Is the badger a protected animal? Understanding the badger's protection level in one article

The badger, also known as the dog badger, is a mammal common in Europe and parts of Asia, mostly inhabiting barren hills, jungles, hillsides and other places. So is the badger a protected animal?

1. Is the badger a protected animal?

The badger is a protected animal, but it is a municipal-level protected animal rather than a national protected animal. At present there are the dog badger, honey badger, hog badger, wolverine and ferret badger. Among them, the hog badger is a national third-class protected animal, and the dog badger is a second-class protected animal; hunting and killing them is illegal!

2. What kinds of badgers are there?

1. Dog badger

The dog badger, also called badger, badger-eight-dog and so on, is mainly distributed in northeast, northwest, south and central-south China. Its head is flat, nose pointed, ears short, neck short and thick, tail relatively short, limbs short and sturdy, claws strong and suitable for digging soil, and it often lives in holes. The back hair is hard and dense, white at the base, blackish brown near the end, and white at the tip, with more white hair on the sides of the body. The lower jaw, throat, abdomen and limbs are all brownish black. It mostly inhabits jungles, barren hills, streams and lakes, and shrub thickets on hillsides. It likes living in groups and is good at digging holes. Its diet is very omnivorous.

2. Honey badger

The honey badger has a body length of 60-77 cm and a shoulder height generally of 25-30 cm. Its back is gray. Its fur is loose and very rough, and it is not afraid of bee stings or snake bites. It lives in shallow burrows in various types of terrain——rainforests, open grasslands and even watersides. It is active at dusk and at night, often coming out alone or in pairs. During the day it rests in underground burrows. It is omnivorous and eats all kinds of food, including small mammals, birds, reptiles, ants, carrion, wild fruits, berries, nuts and so on, and even eats venomous snakes such as cobras and mambas, but what it likes eating most is honey.

3. Hog badger

The hog badger is similar in size to the dog badger, with the whole body light brown or blackish brown, the throat and tail white, and a white longitudinal stripe from the tip of the nose to the nape. It inhabits areas from plains to mountainous regions at an altitude of more than 3000 m. Its habits are similar to those of the dog badger, living in caves, dwelling in rock caves or burrows it digs. It is fierce in nature, its call resembles that of a pig, its eyesight is poor, its sense of smell is well developed, it is nocturnal, and its diet is omnivorous, especially preferring animal food, including earthworms, frogs, lizards, loaches, rice-field eels, mole crickets, longhorn beetles and rodents, and it also eats plant food, sometimes stealing crops such as corn, wheat, sweet potatoes and peanuts.

4. Wolverine

The wolverine, also called bear, flying bear, bear marten and so on, is probably named because it has both the cruelty of a wolf and the body shape of a badger. In fact, the wolverine belongs to the weasel family, is mainly brown, and from a distance looks very much like a small brown bear. It is greedy by nature, its food is very omnivorous, and it likes eating the carcasses of large beasts or stealing hunters' prey, including the females and young of large herbivores such as reindeer and red deer. It also catches foxes, wild cats, roe deer, otters, grouse, hazel grouse, rodents and so on, and also eats mushrooms, pine nuts or various berries, especially loving honey.

5. Ferret badger

The ferret badger, also called meizi, mountain badger, white meizi and so on, has a short and thick neck, short round erect ear shells, small eyes, and relatively great variation in hair color, with the back ranging from light grayish brown or yellow-grayish brown, dark purplish gray to brownish brown, and the abdomen ranging from pale white, yellow-white, cinnamon to apricot yellow. It is nocturnal, lives in burrows, moves rather slowly, is omnivorous, and shows obvious seasonal changes in activity. It breeds once a year, with 2-4 young per litter, and inhabits forests, shrublands and grasslands in river valleys, gullies, hills and mountainous areas. It is distributed in China, India, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam.