Animal of the Week April 04, 2005 -- Yes, there is a stink badger

Hey Kids,
This week's animal is, believe it or not, Mydaus javanensis (Sunda stink badger). Stink badgers are just two some of the crazy sounding badgers of southeast Asia: Imagine the Formosan ferret badger or the Hog badger. Sunda stink badger's are found at high elevations on Sumatra and Java in Indonesia and Borneo in Malaysia. Stink badgers secrete a noxious smelling liquid from glands around their anuses; and their affiliation with either true badgers or skunks is hotly debated by them as debates these things. In some parts of their range they are occasionally eaten by indingenous people as a cure for fevers. Apparently they sometimes live in porcupine burrows with the porcupines...imagine that it stinks and it's full of spines. In Norwegian they are called Stinkgraevling. (apologies for the pictures both being small, but there's no way I'm not having sunda stink badger as animal of the week this week)