The Ferret Badger is a small Badger from the Mustelidae family. There are three varieties of Ferret Badger, the Everett's Ferret Badger Melogale everreti, the Chinese Ferret Badger Melogale moschata and the Burmese Ferret Badger Melogale personata.

The Ferret Badger Family

Everett's Ferret Badger

Everett's Ferret Badgers have brown fur, and a white dorsal stripe which starts on their heads and ends near their shoulders. They can only be found on one specific mountain¹ in the north of Borneo.

Chinese Ferret Badger

Chinese Ferret Badgers have black fur, with white patches on the face and a white dorsal stripe that ends at the shoulders. The Chinese Ferret Badger is found in China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Laos, Burma, the Assam region of India, and Thailand.

Burmese Ferret Badger

Burmese Ferret Badgers have light brown fur, with white facial patches and a long white or grey dorsal stripe that often goes down all the way down the back. The Burmese Ferret Badger is found in Burma, Laos, the Assam region of India, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand and the island of Java.

About the Ferret Badger

An adult Ferret Badger is between 48 and 66 centimetres long. That is comprised of a body of between 33 and 43 centimetres and a tail between 15 and 23 centimetres. They weigh between 1 and 3 kilograms.

The Ferret Badger is omnivorous, and will happily eat plants, fruit, nuts, insects and small rodents. Burmese people often encourage them to enter dwellings to get rid of rodents and insects, rather like cats!

Ferret Badgers live in burrows but unlike Eurasian Badgers they do not dig them themselves; rather they use burrows that they find. Ferret Badgers also sometimes live in trees and are hence called Pahmi² in Burma.

Ferret Badgers usually mate between May and October. However it is known that cubs can be born all year round, the average litter size is 2-3 cubs. However larger litters have been reported in the case of Chinese Ferret Badgers. In some cases, Ferret Badgers can live to be 10 years old. Some pictures of Ferret Badgers are available here.

Interestingly enough when threatened by a predator the Ferret Badger will attempt to squirt the contents of its anal gland into the face of its attacker in order to drive it away rather like a skunk! As such, the Ferret Badger has gained a reputation as a fearsome creature when attacked.

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¹ Mount Kinabalu
² Tree Badgers