National Badger Day

National Badger Day is a holiday observed every October 6th that celebrates these short-legged omnivores from the Mustelidae family. Although the American badger is the name of the animal that lives in parts of North America, there are a variety of other badgers across the planet.

These include the Asian Badger, the Japanese Badger, the Burmese Ferret-Badger, the Bornean Ferret-Badger, the Chinese Ferret-Badger, and the famed Honey Badger. Badgers can be found in North America, Ireland, Great Britain, and Scandinavia.

They can also be found in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Desert, the Levant, India, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan. Indeed, badgers can be found all around the world, so let’s take the time to enjoy this holiday dedicated to these squat creatures.

The History of National Badger Day

Unfortunately, we are unable to locate the origins of this holiday. We just couldn’t find out who invented it, where it was invented, or even when it was invented. We think it came about sometime between 2015-2018, but at this moment we can’t even confirm if that’s a fact.

Important Facts About Badgers

Now that we’re talking about National Badger Day, we thought we’d take some time to list some information about badgers below. We found quite a few important and interesting facts about these animals while we researched this unofficial holiday, so we took it upon ourselves to list some of these facts below. Let’s explore them together.

  • Badgers have wedge-shaped bodies, long claws, and broad feet.
  • They also have coarse hair that can come in a variety of different colors, including white, black, gold, or brown.
  • Badgers currently belong to a temporary taxonomic category until more research is done on them.
  • Badgers can grow anywhere from 20 to 34 inches long if measuring from head to tail.
  • Badgers can weigh anywhere from 8 to 39 pounds.
  • Even though badgers are adaptable, they prefer habitats with open grasslands.
  • In Great Britain, the government has decided to cull the substantial badger population to stop the spread of tuberculosis from these animals to cattle.
  • Badgers are primarily nocturnal animals.
  • Badgers are omnivores, meaning they will eat both meat and plants.
  • Some of the things consumed by badgers include earthworms, daddy longlegs larvae, snakes, snails, bird eggs, fruit, honey from beehives, and small mammals.
  • Most badgers are neither threatened nor endangered, except for the Hog Badger.
  • The Hog Badger has had a population decline of almost a third over the last three generations. These badgers can be found in China, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

Observing National Badger Day

This is the day for people to learn more about the badger. These are fascinating animals, and they deserve all of the attention they get. So we encourage everyone to learn more about them and to share their love of these little critters with the rest of the world by using the hashtag #NationalBadgerDay on social media.

When is it?
This year (2024)
October 6 Sunday
Next year (2025)
October 6 Monday
Last year (2023)
October 6 Friday
Topic
Animals