American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) are medium-sized (size of a small dog) predator-scavengers. They are heavy bodied with short legs and a short tail. The face is black-and-white patterned with a white stripe from the top of the nose over the forehead and onto the back of the head, white cheeks, and black spots below the eyes. The front claws are extremely long.

Order Carnivora: Carnivores; Family Mustelidae, Weasels

Badgers eat anything that doesn't run faster than they do, but their diet consists mainly of mice and ground squirrels, which they dig out of their burrows.