A Blow For Badger Awareness

We held a parent-child-animal event recently and everyone was fascinated with Miss Clover. It is rare to get a chance to get up close and personal to a badger. So many people have told us, as they walk up to her, “there’s the meanest thing on four legs.” (And some of these people teach!). Isn’t true. To prove it she usually licks Jean affectionately on his nose.

A fearsome reputation helps a lot if you are little and flat in a big dangerous world and can’t see too well to boot. It is useful to protect yourself by a shoot-first-and-ask-questions later philosophy. A wild animal feeling threatened protects itself! What a concept! But the tragic part is your bad reputation prevents people from seeing the sweetness that is there when you feel safe. If we approached the wild ones with a different attitude and care, we might have a different experience altogether. They have a huge sense of curiosity when not feeling threatened. They want to know about us, as we do about them – life in one form (badger) meeting itself in another form (human).

Miss Clover, a safe and relaxed badger, has a great sense of play and humor, and is extremely affectionate. She is very verbal and expresses her feelings quite clearly. All of them. She giggles and sings, and positively purrs at the sight of Jean. She follows him around on badger walks ( a bit slow as she stops frequently to dig). And when guests come she charms the pants off of them. ( “I didn’t know a badger could be like that!”). Miss Clover strikes another blow for badger awareness. And perhaps opens our mind to the possibility that other wild animals might have a sweet side too.

Additional Miss Clover Stories