A European Badger (Meles meles), also known as a Eurasian Badger or just the Badger in Europe, is a member of the family Mustelidae native to Europe, West Asia, and parts of Central Asia, especially around the Khorasan area. There are four recognized subspecies of the European Badger.

It measures 25-30 centimeters (9.8-11.8 inches) in shoulder height and Its weight varies between 7-13 kilograms (15-29 pounds) in spring and 15-17 kilograms (33-37 pounds) in autumn before the winter rest period. They have stocky, powerfully built animals with small heads, thick necks, wedge-shaped bodies, and short tails. They have short, strong limbs with five-toed feet, equipped with long, blunt, non-retractable claws for digging. Boars tend to have broader heads, thicker necks, and thinner tails, while sows are sleeker, with narrower heads and fluffier tails. In winter, European badgers have long, coarse guard hairs with a sparse undercoat on the back and flanks, while the belly fur is short and thin, showing skin in places. Their throat, chest, and legs are black, the belly brownish, and the inguinal region brownish-grey. The back and sides are silvery-grey with straw highlights, and the tail matches this color. Distinctively, they have two black facial bands running from the lips through the ears, sometimes extending down the neck. In summer, European badgers’ fur becomes shorter, coarser, and sparser, with darker coloring, where the black areas turn brownish and may show yellowish tinges.


European Badgers are the most social of all the badgers, forming on average six adults, though some have recorded up to 23 individuals. Under optimal conditions, their territories can be as small as 30 hectares (74 acres) or as large as 150 hectares (370 acres). Male badgers show most territorial aggression, with a hierarchical system where larger boars dominate smaller males. During early spring mating season, big boars may intrude into neighboring territories. Like other badgers, they're burrowing animals. However the dens they construct are the most complex of any badgers with exits in one den (called setts) can vary from a few to fifty, of which it follows long and wide and high bases with lots of chambers. When winter is coming, they prepare for winter rest by accumulating fat reserves during the late summer. European Badgers are amongst the least carnivorous of the Carnivora order, having a pronounced omnivorous diet consisting of insects, fruit, cereals, and small mammals.

Euorpean Badgers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN for its population stability and commonality of the species with a wide habitat range. It's so common in Europe that one of subspecies the Common Badger (M. m. meles) is often called just the "badger:. There were many names attributed to the badger. The word badger likely comes from badge + -ard, referring to its forehead marking, though the French bêcheur (“digger”) is another theory. Males are called boars, females sows, young cubs, and their homes setts; groups are called clans. An older name is brock (from Celtic brokko, “grey”), while the Proto-Germanic þahsu- (linked to digging) gave rise to words like German Dachs and Romance forms (tasso, tejón, texugo, etc.). Until the 18th century, English had many regional names: brock, pate, grey, bawson (“striped with white”), badget (Norfolk), and earth dog (southern Ireland). In Welsh, it’s still called mochyn daear (“earth pig”).

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