Top 10 facts didn't know about badgers

Today is National Badger Day, to help the Badger Trust, to help the mammals

October 6 is National Badger Day, helping the Badger Trust (badger.org.uk) to protect badgers.

1. The earliest recorded use of the word “badger” for the animal was in 1523. Before that, it was called a “brock” or “bauson”.
2. “Badger” was originally (around 1500) a word for an itinerant trader.
3. The animal was probably called a “badger” from the badge-like white mark on its forehead.

Badgers feed mainly on earthworms of which they may eat hundreds every night.

The animal was probably called a “badger” from the badge-like white mark on its forehead

4. Another theory it that is comes from the French word “bêcheur” meaning a digger.
5. Badgers feed mainly on earthworms of which they may eat hundreds every night.
6. According to an old belief, when a badger bites, it will not loosen its grip until its teeth meet.

7. A male badger is a boar, a female is a sow, the young are cubs and their system of underground burrows is a sett.
8. Interfering with a badger sett is an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. So is obstructing access to any entrance of a sett.
 

Interfering with a badger sett is an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992

9. The honey badger, or ratel, is considered by many to be the world’s most ferocious and fearless animal.
10. The word “badger” does not appear in any Shakespeare play but Twelfth Night mentions “brock” once.