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American Badger
Built flat, wide, and low to the ground, the American badger (Taxidea taxus) has incredibly loose-fitting skin with a thick layer of fat under it. This skin helps the badger slip and slide in underground tunnels. The fat layer grows thicker in fall to keep the badger warm through the cold season.
Not many animals can dig better or faster than a badger can. Active at night, badgers use powerful front legs and long claws to dig many long, deep burrows - up to 60 feet long - and to hunt for ground squirrels, gophers, and other burrowing animals.
Badgers live throughout Minnesota in open, treeless areas where there is plenty of prey.
Two to seven baby badgers are born blind in underground dens. When they grow up, badgers are fierce and strong. Not many predators will attack an adult badger.
Wolverine
Wolverines (Gulo gulo) have large feet and long claws, and look like small bears. In fact, because of its strong odor and bearlike appearance, American Indians once called the wolverine "skunk bear."
In North America, wolverines range throughout the forests and tundra of Canada and Alaska. At one time wolverines inhabited Minnesota's wilderness, but we don't know how many lived there. Wolverines are hard to find because they roam very large, remote territories ranging up to 566 square miles. Perhaps they were never more common in Minnesota than they are today. The last record of this species in Minnesota was a specimen taken in 1899 in Itasca County.
The wolverine is a good tree climber and eats just about anything, from cranberries to carrion. Gulo is Latin for glutton: Like other weasel family members, the wolverine has a big appetite. It protects its food stores by marking the food with a musk odor to keep away other carnivores.
Although not much bigger than a medium-size dog, the wolverine is ferocious. Its natural enemy is the wolf.
