Wildlife

Hog badger in Yanqing

hog_badger_in_yanqing.jpg
A badger with a pig-like snout

Writing from Yanqing County, Beijing, Bezdomny Ex Patria translates some local news:

A Very Good Sign

The other day, Yanqing County parks and forest workers succeeded in rescuing a Beijing Municipality grade two protected wild animal within the county town’s green belt- a hog badger...

...A worker at the Badaling Wild Animal Park said that a hog badger entering the county town, on one hand could be because it lost its way, but on the other hand shows that the vegetation in the Yanqing County town area has the conditions for the survival of wildlife, the ecological environment has improved, people’s awareness of the protection of wild animals has strengthened, people and animals can get along harmoniously, and therefore a hog badger can wander around.

Although use of the trendy Hu Jintao buzzword 'harmoniously' makes the quote above seem a little like propaganda, the green belt around Beijing is indeed one of the untold environmental success stories of the capital, at least based on your correspondent's encounters with wild animals (see links below).

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There are currently 2 Comments for Hog badger in Yanqing.

Comments on Hog badger in Yanqing

Yummmm...badger

Wow, that last comment was "well-grounded and articulate" .... not.

The photo above looks to me like a Eurasian badger (Meles meles), not a hog badger (Arctonyx collaris). The main facial stripes look typical for the subspecies of M. meles resident in China. There is no secondary stripe on the cheek, characteristic of A. collaris. The nose is black, which is typical of M. meles - the hog badger has a naked, pink, pig-like snout.

Eurasian badgers are becoming increasingly common in towns and cities here in Britain as developments take wildlife into account. It looks like the same thing may be happening in parts of China.

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