KENNETH GRAHAME’S OTHER BADGER [originally posted 4 January 2015] Although best known for The Wind in the Willows (1908), the writer Kenneth Grahame was also the creator of the short story, “The Reluctant Dragon” (1898). As a somewhat vexed romantic, and as a keen observer of both animal behaviour and human attitudes toward animals, Grahame offers another badger, this one unnamed but significant.  In this contemplative fantasy, the brave knight St. George comes to a small…

[Originally posted 20 April 2015] In North America and Europe alike, there are many stories–and a long history–about badgers in relationship with their canid neighbours–generally coyotes in the former, foxes in the latter. Not only have cooperative hunting and dwelling interactions been extensively observed as actual behaviours in nature, they have also become part of the lore about these species in their respective territories. These storied traditions can be found among many Indigenous peoples in North…