Venus Buchcaalter, age 11, of Merrillville, Indiana, for her question:
Where does the badger make his home?
The badger is a born digger. As he waddles along, low to the ground on stubby legs, almost any four footed animal can outrun hire. He can't swim and he can't climb a tree. But my. horn he can dig: Naturally he lives in regions where the soil is digable. And the most natural place to make his home is in a safe and comfortable underground burrow.
Few people get a chance to see a badger because he conducts host of his outdoor business at night. However, it is possible to find his front door, which is called a badgerhole or a "aett." It leads to a roomy underground tunnel. Sometimes his home stead is a whole network of tunnels that has belonged to his family for generations.
It is not wise to pry inside, for the badger has a mouthful of sharp teeth and a bite like a bulldog. He is a fearless character, always ready to defend himself and his home against the fiercest foe.
He makes no effort to conceal his wide front door far from it. Stones and masses of dirt are piled around the entrance. A well worn path leads from the door. Often it marks the route where the homeowner ~~paddles to drink from a stream. Sometimes this path is covered with tufts of weeds and grasses. These are dropped then the badger gathers fresh material to line his underground nest. Since he is a very neat housekeeper, this happens quite often. Some of the scraps are dropped because he gathers the stuff in his front paces and back into his sect, without looking were he is ;going.
The badger also is neat in matters of hygiene. He spends a lot of time primping and combong, the dirt from his handsome fur coat. Some distance from the sett, he digs a shallot.? hollow to use as a toilet. Also nearby there is often a favorite tree trunk, used as a scratching host. There the badger stands on his hind feet to sharpen the long sturdy claws on his front paws.
During the day and sometimes through moon light nights, the badger sleeps in his comfortable bed, down deep in his tunnel.
Usually he takes up an hour after sunset. But on summer evenings, he may mistake the time and come forth before day is done. He is a meateater and very fond of rodent meat. However, this food is often hard to catch because usually a tiny mouse can run faster than he can. This is embarrassing because a groom badger is three feet long, and one foot high and his short legs were made for digging, rather than running,
The male badger is called a boar and the female is called a sow. Most likely the pair mates for life. In early spring, she gives birth to a litter of one to five cubs. A newborn cub is about five inches long plus a one and a half inch tail. At first, the babes are blind and helpless. After six weeks or so, they are coaxed to leave their cozy underground home for lessons in outdoor badgercraft. Soon the fluffy little cuties are romping around. By fall they are ready to leave their parents to start lives of their own.