[1] The two species of Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included within Melinae (and thus Mustelidae), but more recent genetic evidence indicates these are actually members of the skunk family (Mephitidae).

[2] Badger mandibular condyles connect to long cavities in their skulls, which gives resistance to jaw dislocation and increases their bite grip strength.

[6] Similarly, a now archaic synonym was bauson 'badger' (1375), a variant of bausond 'striped, piebald', from Old French bausant, baucent 'id.'.

German Dachs, Dutch das, Norwegian svintoks; Early Modern English dasse), probably from the PIE root *tek'- "to construct," so the badger would have been named after its digging of setts (tunnels); the Germanic term *þahsuz became taxus or taxō, -ōnis in Latin glosses, replacing mēlēs ("marten" or "badger"),[8] and from these words the common Romance terms for the animal evolved (Italian tasso, French taisson—blaireau is now more common—Catalan toixó, Spanish tejón, Portuguese texugo).

However, in North America the young are usually called kits, while the terms male and female are generally used for adults.

[18] The honey badger is found in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Desert, southern Levant, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India.

[19] The behaviour of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts, which may be very extensive.

In March 2024, scientists released footage of a wild Asian badger climbing a tree to a height of 2.5 m in South Korea.

[21] In North America, coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral.

[23] The diet of the Eurasian badger consists largely of earthworms (especially Lumbricus terrestris),[24] insects, grubs, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds.

[29] American badgers are fossorial carnivores – i.e. they catch a significant proportion of their food underground, by digging.

Badgers have been trapped commercially for their pelts, which have been used for centuries to make shaving brushes,[31][32] a purpose to which it is particularly suited owing to its high water retention.

[34] Village cooperatives are also licensed by the national government to hunt and process badgers to avoid their becoming a crop nuisance in rural northern China.

[36] Until the 1980s, badger culling in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the form of gassing, allegedly to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).

As of 2013[update] Wales and Northern Ireland are currently conducting field trials of a badger vaccination programme.

[50] Shish kebabs made from badger, along with dog meat and pork, are a major source of trichinosis outbreaks in the Altai Region of Russia.

[51] In France, badger meat was used in the preparation of several dishes, such as Blaireau au sang, and it was a relatively common ingredient in countryside cuisine.

They were said to lie down at the entrance of the hole holding a stick in their mouths, while other badgers piled dirt on their bellies.

The badger is the emblem of the Hufflepuff house of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series (1997–2007), it is chosen as such because the badger is an animal that is often underestimated, because it lives quietly until attacked, but which, when provoked, can fight off animals much larger than itself, which resembles the Hufflepuff house in several ways.

Many other stories featuring badgers as characters include Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows (1908), Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mr. Tod (1912; featuring badger Tommy Brock), the Rupert Bear adventures by Mary Tourtel (appearing since 1920), T. H. White's Arthurian fantasy novels The Once and Future King (1958, written 1938–41) and The Book of Merlyn (1977), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970) by Roald Dahl, Richard Adams's Watership Down (1972), Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood (1979), and Erin Hunter's Warriors (appearing since 2003).

In the historic novel Incident at Hawk's Hill (1971) by Allan W. Eckert a badger is one of the main characters.

The 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood depicts the character of Friar Tuck as a badger.

[61] On 28 August 2013, the PC video game Shelter was released by developers Might and Delight in which players control a mother badger protecting her cubs.