Rarely seen, American Badgers are solitary, secretive, and nocturnal. They go largely unnoticed in Ohio with most people not even realizing that badgers are found in Ohio. In fact, according to the ODNR these traits make the animal so elusive it’s difficult to know exactly how many badgers call Ohio home. Badgers are not native to Ohio. They began entering the state in the late 1880’s as Ohio’s forests were cleared for farmland. They’re mostly found throughout western areas of the state – Ohio’s historical prairie regions – and above the state’s glacial line. This area provides flat or gently rolling land like the prairies they came from. They prefer habitats with short grass such as fields and pastures. It’s believed that Ohio is as far east as they have moved. Badgers are digging machines. It’s said they live to dig and dig to live. They dig for food, shelter, defense, and sometimes just for fun. The badger is the only true fossorial carnivore in North America. A fossorial animal is built to efficiently dig, and lives primarily underground but also spends time above ground. Badgers have stocky bodies, short legs and a tapered head. They have a very distinctive black and white striped face. It’s their black cheek patches or badges that give them their name. They have powerful front legs and feet. Their front feet have two-to-three-inch curved claws and the toes that are partially webbed for even stronger digging ability. They have 34 teeth that sharpen each other automatically when they open and shut their mouth. They have nictitating eyelids, a translucent third eyelid that protects its vision from being damaged by flying soil. They have excellent senses of smell and hearing, allowing them to locate prey below ground. They can eat rattlesnakes and are immune to their venom unless bitten on the nose. They use stench from their musk glands as a deterrent and they have loose skin that enables them to turn around in tight spaces. One more fact about badgers- there is documented evidence that badgers occasionally pair up with coyotes to hunt. It’s incredibly rare to have two different species helping one another. The badger being the superior digger can take advantage of prey hiding underground from the coyote and the coyote can take advantage of ground squirrels that make a run for it when dug up by the badger. Badger-coyote hunting teams even appear in Native American stories. Scientists studying this pairing found that when hunting together coyotes were 34% more successful in hunting ground squirrels than when hunting alone. It was harder to quantify the success rate of the badgers as they eat their prey while underground. However, badgers spend more time underground when hunting with a coyote, so it’s assumed that they too were more successful. Badgers are amazing animals and quite beneficial to the ecosystem. As predators they help keep rodent populations in check and since they sometimes eat grapes or gooseberries, they help spread native plant seeds. Their burrowing helps the soil, turning it over, transferring nutrients, moving nitrogen, and increasing oxygen. They also benefit other species. Possums, woodchucks, foxes, skunks, and ground squirrels will use abandoned badger dens. A dark night provides the badger with everything it needs to thrive. Let’s protect dark skies so that these secretive creatures can continue to play their role in the ecosystem.