Why do badgers have stripes?
So there we are, gathered around the in-tent telly, watching Gordon Buchanan holding those adorable little badger cubs. Everyone in the room is cooing and purring happily when Neil, a BBC Radio roving reporter, suddenly pipes up:
"I've just had a thought. Why do badgers have stripes?"
Everyone ignores him because a badger has just climbed up the chimney. But Neil refuses to give up so easily.
"Seriously, if someone can't tell me in the next three minutes why badgers have stripes then I'm turning to Creationism."
After the show the crew returns to the hotel and the talk returns to the topic of the evening: badgers and their stripes. Luckily for the quality of the conversation, the bar has closed so there is a limit to how much can be drunk. Unluckily for the quality of the conversation the doorman has offered to keep serving so the aforementioned limit is actually quite high.
"Why do badgers have stripes?" someone asks again.
"Because they've earned them," comes the reply. "After all, it can't be easy being a badger."
Nods all round. This man has obviously thought it through. But he isn't the only one with an answer.
"I reckon badgers have stripes so they can blend in with zebras," says someone else. The rest of us point out that no one has ever seen wild zebra in the UK.
"That's what you think," comes the man with zebra theory. "But maybe that's only because the zebras are so well camouflaged against the badgers..."
The speaker is a highly-trained zoologist so most of us are happy with this. It does after all make perfect sense and reminds me of a friend who once went paint-balling disguised as Groucho Marx. When was asked why he was disguised as Groucho Marx, he explained that as no one had ever seen spotted Groucho Marx in these woods, then no one would spot him either...
But one of the producers has another and it has nothing to do with camouflage:
"As badgers have small eyes and very poor eyesight," she says, "I think they have stripes so they can recognize each other." But this doesn't wash with the rest of us, some of whom have worked on Springwatch for literally days and now know a thing or two about animals.
"If they want to recognize each other then maybe they should think beyond just the whole stripes thing," suggests one of the web team. "Spots would be good. And stars."
"Or numbers. Numbers are always useful for distinguishing things from each other. It works very well on prisoners."
"Or why not just give them bigger eyes? Then they wouldn't need the stripes at all, and then they wouldn't blend in with the white lines going down the middle of the road, and then fewer badgers would be hit by cars."
We take a vote on it, decide that badgers should definitely be given bigger eyes, and then - as it is after midnight - we retire for the night.
In the morning, unsurprisingly, many of us have sore heads. But I guess that's the price one pays for having such enormous brains...
Update:
I promised you Chris Packham's theory and here it is:
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And while you're here, below is a selection of badger shots that viewers submitted to the Springwatch Flickr group.
Comments
RE: By the way, if you'd like to get an even cleverer answer, I have just asked Chris Packham the question and will be posting the video on this blog later this afternoon.
It's now tomorrow (i.e. the "later this afternoon" has passed) but I see no video. I'd like to see the answer because I'm poised ready to pounce on a "it's a warning" answer (i.e. anything with spots or stripes is either "it's a warning" or "it's camouflage"; just like for archeologists they use "it's for ritual purposes" for stuff they don't know!).
BTW, while the zebra answer was amusing it was a little poorly thought through, as the badger only has stripes on the head so the body and butt would be on view (and would also mean that we'd spot the zebras!). Yeah, okay I'm just jealous that I didn't give that answer.
Seriously though, where do I find this response?
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Hi OhSigh,
Many many apologies for the lack of Chris Packham interview. The editing equipment caught a virus and kept shutting the computer down. But I am told it will definitely be posted today and will be well worth the wait!
Thanks for your patience,
The Mole
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Re the Cuckoo, my husband heard one at the Banbury Golf course on Sunday 17th May. Always up until this year we heard one across the fields at the end of our back garden.
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Thanks for the reply, apols and the video TM. Personally I am not overly convinced by the answer, as surely another badger would know where the teeth are! Plus it really only applies if you consider the European badger, but seems to lack some credibility when considered with other badger species which don't have the same "point at the sharp bits" markings.
I'm not saying CP is wrong, just that I'm unconvinced. I don't have a better answer though!
I did wonder if maybe the marking were a sort of protection, in that the head is the being shoved at the prey (thinking more of small mammal/reptiles and not those vicious earthworms!) and that the white flashes would possibly attract any defensive attacks and thus avoid damage to the eyes. This sort of also works for the ratel (honey badger) but falls down a bit with the American badger. TBH, I should probably not look for an answer that fits all badger types as they have been separate long enough for evolution to find sub-species specific solutions.
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