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Wildlife American Badger Page
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American Badger
Taxidea taxus
Habitat: Grasslands, meadows in subalpine and montane forests, alpine tundra, and semidesert shrublands.
Diet: Prairie dogs, ground squirrels, gophers, mice, cottontails, jackrabbits, snakes, lizards, ground-nesting birds and their eggs, and insects (Lindzey 1982, Messick 1987).
Description: Badgers are short, with thick necks and short legs specialized for digging. The legs are muscular with strong claws on the front feet that may exceed 50 mm in length. The tail is short but bushy. The general dorsal color is silvery gray, sometimes tinged with brown, yellow, or buff and grizzled with black. The snout, top of the head, feet, parts of the legs, and areas around the ears are black. A white midline stripe runs from the nose pad onto the head, which also sports white facial marks. Measurements are: total length 660-889 mm; length of tail 98-174 mm; length of hindfoot 88-155 mm; length of ear 50-53 mm; weight 6-14 kg. On the northern Great Plains weights averaged 8.4 kg for males and 6.4 kg for females (Wright 1969).
Range in Colorado: Badgers are found throughout Colorado in all open habitats. Densities are highest in areas with abundant ground squirrels or prairie dogs.
Status: CDOW Furbearer
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Species Occurrence Tool
(*) NDIS has no county occurrence data for fish at this time.
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