Badger joins the wild in Ozaukee

Ozaukee County’s permanent animal population increased by one recently as Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center released a 4-month-old badger last month.

The badger, which was found in Dane County in April and brought to Pine View — one of only a handful of rehab centers  in the state qualified to care for the animal — was “more than ready to be released to the wild,” Pine View Executive Director Jean Lord said.

It had demonstrated that it could find food and eat it, she said, and that it could dig a den for itself.

It would growl whenever humans came near its enclosure at Pine View, she said, and was perfectly healthy.

The badger was released on a property in the county that, when combined with neighboring lands, offers the animal more than 200 acres of land to call its home, Lord said, noting the animal has time to establish its territory before winter.

The property contains woods, meadows, cornfields and a creek, she said, calling the property “the epitome of a perfect site.”

The badger quickly took to its new home, Lord said, noting that when its cage was opened “off it went, waddle, waddle.”

The badger, now considered a “late juvenile badger,” was a newborn when it was brought to Pine View, so young its eyes were not yet open.

Found next to a gravel driveway during a stormy period, the roughly month-old kit was dehydrated, a little emaciated and chilled but otherwise in good health.

The cuddly looking badger, complete with the distinctive white stripes on his head, quickly charmed everyone who saw him, including Lord, who has a pragmatic view of wildlife and the ability to detach herself from the emotions many feel when looking at baby animals.

“It’s hard not to say that,” she said in April after someone described the baby badger as adorable. “It’s amazing.”

The badger has since grown significantly, Lord said, and become a fearsome creature ready to face the wild.

“Those claws and those paws are gigantic,” she said, noting the claws were between three and four inches each. Its body, she said, was “long and heavy duty.”

While at Pine View, whose main facility is in the Town of Saukville, the badger was kept in an enclosure that replicated its natural release area, with lots of soil to dig in, since badgers can create dens that are six feet deep and spread 30 feet, Lord said.

It was fed a natural diet that included everything from “insects to meat and mice to rats and an assortment of fruit and vegetables,” she said, noting the animals are omnivores.

Pine View is one of only a few rehabilitation centers in the state certified to handle badgers, and Lord noted that recently a college student from the United Kingdom contacted Pine View seeking information on raising and releasing the mammals.

“In the U.K. there’s no data, or not much data, on raising and releasing them,” Lord said.

It was “a gift” to be able to release the badger, Lord said, adding that while neighbors will keep an eye out for the animal, Pine View won’t monitor its progress.

“Just finding it would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” she said, noting the animals are shy, solitary and mostly active at night.