Ok, I lied. There is no neuroscience of badgers. I just wanted to post this awesome video from an animal rescue facility in England, who reared an abandoned otter cub with a group of motherless baby badgers for companionship. Once the otter and badgers were grown, they were seperated so they could learn species-specific behaviors and be released back into the wild.
Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog
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Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is just embarking on that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot on the quest to get funded, get a PhD, and stay sane.
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The Neuroscience of Badgers
Category: YouTube Obsessions
Posted on: January 16, 2008 6:15 PM, by Shelley Batts
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Comments
o_O Crazy that a badger is so playful. I thought they were mean!
Posted by: Karen | January 16, 2008 6:28 PM
that a badger is so playful. I thought they were mean!
You're thinking American badgers (taxidea taxus) that li'l fellow was European (meles meles).
Posted by: Alexandra | January 16, 2008 7:05 PM
Hi Shelly,
I thought that you might be interested in the close relationship of a Badger to a Wolverine [in addition to being members or the Big 10 base 11 Conference].
From the Minnesota DNR:
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammals
Order Carnivora
Family Mustelids or Weasel
[65 species, mustelids are the largest family of carnivores in the world]
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/young_naturalists/weasels/index.html
Posted by: Doug | January 16, 2008 8:06 PM
Thanks Doug, great article. I learned something new and really interesting:
"Most female mustelids [badgers/weasels/otters/etc] have a special way to ensure their young are born when food is available. Called "delayed implantation," this adaptation allows fertilized eggs to remain undeveloped for many months. When food is plentiful, usually when days are warm and long, the eggs develop and the young are born."
What a great adaptation!
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 16, 2008 10:59 PM
Badger!
That's some damn cute neuroscience, I'll say.
Posted by: Susie | January 17, 2008 1:41 AM
European badgers can still be nasty fighters, if you piss them off. But they are in general far more social animals (they live in large family "clans", too), and social animals play.
I have a special fondness for badgers. I think of myself as being essentially feline, but my husband...ah, he is definitely badger-like.
Man, those little ones are cute.
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | January 17, 2008 9:30 AM
I love badgers too! Ever since I saw Weebl's "badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom" animations (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about.)
That baby badger is pretty tolerant of the otter tromping all over his head. I can almost hear him saying "personal space!!!"
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 17, 2008 9:58 AM
Yeah, and the little squeaks when he's(?) nearly getting bowled over....
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | January 17, 2008 10:45 AM
Badgers? Badgers!
We don' need no stinkin badgers!
(thank you Weird Al via John Huston...)
Posted by: Ian | January 19, 2008 12:25 AM
"We don' need no stinkin' badgers!"
Need 'em or not, we got 'em.
Posted by: cfrost | January 27, 2008 9:04 AM