Taxidea taxus

Four subspecies have been recognized on the basis of differences in skull size and pelage color (Long 1972): T. t. berlandieri, found in the southern United States; T. t. jacksoni, found in the north-central United States and southern Ontario in Canada; T. t. taxus, found in the Great Plains ecosystem ranging from the United States into the prairie provinces of Canada; and T. t. jeffersonii, found in western United States and southern British Columbia.

Genetic data support the current geographic delineation of the northwestern subspecies taxus and jeffersonii (Kyle et al. 2004). Gene flow between prairie populations of T. t taxus did not seem to be restricted, nor did there seem to be a restriction of gene flow for populations within mountain ranges for T. t. jeffersonii. In contrast, minimal gene flow was observed between populations separated by mountain ranges.

Taxus is a generic synonym.

Large range in the western and central U.S., southern Canada, and northern and central Mexico; relatively common over much of range, but probably has declined substantially in areas converted from grassland to intensive agriculture and where colonial rodents such as prairie dogs and groundsquirrels have been reduced or eliminated. Also threatened by collisions with vehicles and by direct persecution.

Southern Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and southern Ontario), south and west to Texas, and Puebla and Baja California, Mexico (Wozencraft, in Wilson and Reeder 1993; Long, in Wilson and Ruff 1999).

Although clearing of forests for agricultural land has probably resulted in some range expansion, cultivation of grassland has undoubtedly caused declines (Soper 1964, Stardom 1979, Lindzey 1982, Messick 1987, Smith 1992, Newhouse and Kinley 1999). Likewise, intensification of agriculture is likely to cause declines in the future.

In the west, infill of formerly open woodlands and encroachment of forests into grassland as a result of effective fire suppression has eliminated or degraded much badger habitat (Newhouse and Kinley 1999).

Most mortality is caused by vehicles or deliberate killing by humans (Stardom 1979, Messick et al. 1981, Fitzgerald et al. 1994, Newhouse and Kinley 2000, Apps et al. 2002). Badgers may actually be attracted to roads, both because ground squirrels often burrow alongside them (Ketcheson and Bauer 1995), and because they are good travel routes (Warner and Ver Steeg 1995).

Badgers are trapped, shot and poisoned because their diggings are thought to cause broken legs in livestock, lead to water loss from irrigation canals, and cause damage to vehicles encountering their burrows (Scobie 2002). Declines may also be related to the persecution of their primary prey, prairie dogs and ground squirrels (Apps et al. 2002). Finley et al. (1976) speculated that some Colorado populations may have declined because of the elimination of prairie dogs.