When it comes to tunneling, American badgers put everyone to shame! Their epic underground burrows are a maze of tunnels and dens, which is where they sleep and spend a lot of their time. Then, when the badgers are done with them, they are perfect for a rabbit or fox to take over. It’s time to channel your inner badgers because for this Eco-Activity, we’re building a badger den!

Instructions

1. Set up the walls of your den. They can be made out of couch cushions, chairs, or even just a table that you can sit under.

2. Hang the blankets over the walls. If your blankets are too small, you can use clothespins to keep them together.

3. Grab some comfy blankets and pillows and set up the inside of your den. Make sure it’s super cozy!

4. Your den is ready! Head inside and hangout: read a badger blog post, watch a badger video, or take a nap to get the full badger experience.

We want to see your badger den! Share a photo with us on social media or send an email to membership@earthrangers.com!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

American badgers are feisty creatures with amazing digging skills, but what else do you know about them? Brush up on your badger facts with today’s Eco-Activity! Read about them in the paragraph below, and try to find all the red words in the word search.

American badgers are members of the weasel family, and their babies are called cubs. They’re carnivores and when hungry, they love to snack on rodents like mice and voles. They’re nocturnal, which means they’re awake at night, and they have long snouts and sharp claws. They call the grassland home where the soil is loose and great for digging their burrows. 

When it comes to surviving the cold, no one does it better than our Arctic buddies. For the ones that live underwater, the secret to surviving these freezing temperatures is a fat called blubber. For today’s Eco-Activity, we’re going to be doing an experiment to see just how good blubber is at keeping you warm.

Here’s how you do the experiment:

1. Fill the bowl with ice and cold water.

2. Put a bag on your hand and cover the outside of it with Crisco. Then carefully put another bag over top of it so the Crisco is covered. This will be the “blubber bag”. Set it aside for now.

3. Make the “control bag” by repeating Step 2 without the Crisco. This bag will help you see how cold the water feels when you don’t have blubber.

4. Put both bags on different hands and dunk them in the bowl of ice water. Feel how much warmer the hand in the “blubber bag” is than the one in the “control bag”.

5. Want to see how other materials compare? Try the experiment again using wool, cotton balls, or even tomato sauce! Which keeps you the warmest? You tell us!

We want to see your blubber experiment in action! Share a photo with us on social media or send an email to membership@earthrangers.com!