Badger

226 Pages·2015·2.849 MB·English

by  Daniel Heath Justice

Badger
Animal
Series editor: Jonathan Burt
Already published
Ant Charlotte Sleigh · ApeJohn Sorenson · Badger Daniel Heath Justice · Bear Robert E. Bieder
Bee Claire Preston · Camel Robert Irwin · Cat Katharine M. Rogers · Chicken Annie Potts
Cockroach Marion Copeland · CowHannah Velten · Crocodile Dan Wylie · Crow Boria Sax
Deer John Fletcher · Dog Susan McHugh · Dolphin Alan Rauch · Donkey Jill Bough
Duck Victoria de Rijke · Eagle Janine Rogers · Eel Richard Schweid · Elephant Dan Wylie
Falcon Helen Macdonald · Fly Steven Connor · Fox Martin Wallen · Frog Charlotte Sleigh
GiraffeEdgar Williams · Goat Joy Hinson · GorillaTed Gott and Kathryn Weir
HareSimon Carnell · HorseElaine Walker · HyenaMikita Brottman · KangarooJohn Simons
Leech RobertG. W. Kirk and Neil Pemberton · LionDeirdre Jackson · Lobster Richard J. King
MonkeyDesmond Morris · MooseKevin Jackson · Mosquito Richard Jones · Mouse Georgie Carroll
Octopus Richard Schweid · Ostrich Edgar Williams · Otter Daniel Allen · OwlDesmond Morris
Oyster Rebecca Stott · Parrot Paul Carter · Peacock Christine E. Jackson · PenguinStephen Martin
PigBrett Mizelle · PigeonBarbara Allen · Rabbit Victoria Dickenson · Rat Jonathan Burt
RhinocerosKelly Enright · Salmon Peter Coates · Shark Dean Crawford · SnailPeter Williams
Snake Drake Stutesman · Sparrow Kim Todd·SpiderKatja and Sergiusz Michalski·SwanPeter Young
Tiger Susie Green · Tortoise Peter Young · Trout James Owen · Vulture Thom van Dooren
Whale Joe Roman · WolfGarry Marvin
Badger
Daniel Heath Justice
reaktion books
To my father, Jimmie J Justice, for teaching me reverence
for the wild world and humility before its many mysteries.
Wado, Dad, now and always.
Published by
reaktion books ltd
33
Great Sutton Street
ec1v 0dx, uk
London
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
2015
First published
2015
Copyright © Daniel Heath Justice
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publishers
1010
Printed and bound in China by Printing International Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 78023 336 9
Contents
Beneath the Moon, Below the Earth:
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Considering Badgers
1 18
Natural Histories of the Badger
2 75
Rise of the Delvers: The Symbolic Badger
3 103
Notable Badgers of Page and Screen
4 145
Uses and Abuses: The Persecuted Badger
177
Epilogue: Badger People, Badger Futures
188
Timeline of the Badger
190
References
211
Select Bibliography
214
Associations and Websites
216
Acknowledgements
218
Photo Acknowledgements
221
Index
Kumagai Naohiko,
Badger and Moon,
Meiji era, late 19th
century, ink and
colour on silk.
Beneath the Moon, Below the
Earth: Considering Badgers
For if you finde a Badgerde abroad, it shall not be from
hir burrow lightly.
George Gascoigne, The noble arte of venerie or hunting (1575)
I/am the offspring of the moon, her/pathway of light
the strip of white/on my forehead . . .
John W. Sexton, ‘Badger’ (2000)
Badgers hold a special place in the human imagination, but most
of us have never seen one in person. Like most North Americans
born and raised in the pre-Internet age, my early interactions with
badgers were largely literary, with Kenneth Grahame’s very British
Mr Badger being the most prominent acquaintance. (Today’s
youth are more likely to know the Internet meme of Randall’s
‘Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger’ better than Grahame’s rather fusty
uk
forest recluse, even in the .) Though I now live in Canada, I was
the third generation of my mother’s family raised in the working-
class mining town of Victor, Colorado, and literature was my
escape from the region’s many hardships. Given the ubiquitous
reminders of the area’s gold rush history, from innumerable tunnels
and tailings piles scattered across the rocky landscape to the
weatheredruins of the mines themselves, even at a young age I
was an avid reader of fantastical tales about delving dwarves,
burrow-dwelling hobbits and other subterranean peoples. It was
therefore natural and perhaps even inevitable that badgers and
their symbolic kin would intrigue me. (It wasn’t until I was older
that I would discover that the iconic literary badgers with which
I was most familiar were of the Eurasian variety, Meles meles, rather
than the distinctive North American species, Taxidea taxus.) There
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was something disquieting but enormously appealing in the idea
of the hollowed-out earth under my feet being a secret realm
inhabited by various natural and supernatural entities.
Yet I never actually encountered a living badger when I was
growing up. My experience with them was limited to their diggings
in local mountain meadows where our friends’ cattle grazed, or
the occasional full-body preserved mount on display in a nearby
antique store, gun shop or museum. Where familiarity was absent,
imagination ran wild, and badgers became something more than
my real animal neighbours – they became evocative symbols of
ancient tradition, representatives of rooted stability and guardians
J. K
of the earth’s deep mysteries. (Had . Rowling’s Harry Potter
series been published at that time, I would have certainly been a
Hufflepuff House partisan and proud supporter of its Eurasian
badger mascot.)
Even if I had been brought up with the traditional stories of
my father’s people, badgers are not among the common animals
of Cherokee tradition, and I certainly never heard about badgers
in association with the Ute peoples on whose homeland we lived.
It was not until many years later that I met living badgers and
began to learn something of their own complex personalities and
habits. Yet in the very first of those meetings I learned at least as
much about human attitudes toward these shy creatures as about
badgers themselves.
meeting frances
I went to visit Frances in Oklahoma City on a sweltering June
morning during one of my annual summer trips to Cherokee
and Chickasaw country. I had driven in from Tulsa the previous
night during a terrifying thunderstorm. Morning dawned with
little evidence of the tempest, but I was worried that the heavy
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