Also the badger has lived once much further north, together with the woolly mammoth, the lion and the steppe ferret. How far north have they found the remains of the badger? In what kind of climate has this animal lived there? Is the badger adapted to an arctic climate? Is it able to live in ice and snow and on permafrost? What have the scientists found out about this?
Elaine Anderson writes: "Badgers are not found in Alaska today. Their closest occurrence is along the Peace River, lat. 58°N, in northern Alberta, about 1800 km southeast of the Fairbanks area. During the late Pleistocene, badgers inhabited the unglaciated, grassy steppes of central Alaska and northern Yukon (Gold Run Creek, Harington, 1970), and Dominion Creek (Harington, personal communication). Remains of Taxidea (= the North American badger) outnumber the other Alaskan mustelids in the Frick collection. ... The Alaskan badgers are characterized by large size. ... Other big late Pleistocene badgers are known from Dominion Creek, Yukon Territory..." (1977:15, 17).
"Badgers inhabit plains and open forests where friable soil is available for digging. Their diet consists of insects and small vertebrates, especially rodents. Although badgers are inactive during cold spells, they are not true hibernators. The presence of badgers in Alaska during the late Pleistocene indicates a milder climate then, for today their northern distribution is limited by subarctic conditions.
"As Hopkins (1967) and Guthrie (1968) postulated, grasslands must have been more extensive in the refugium during the late Pleistocene in order to support the enormous numbers of herbivores that lived there. The remains of three obligatory grazers, Bison, Equus, and Mammuthus make up more than 85 per cent of the fossils collected in the Fairbanks area, and the presence of many plains dwellers including Taxidea taxus and Mustela eversmanni further supports this hypothesis. Large size was characteristic of many species of the Pleistocene, and remains of Gulo gulo (wolverine) and Taxidea taxus (North American badger) from the Fairbanks deposits are the largest recorded." - Anderson, E. (1977:19, 20).
C. R. Harington remarks: "I think large stretches of grassland or parkland must have existed between the prairies and Dawson and Fairbanks during the late Pleistocene in order to explain the presence of badger fossils in the latter areas. ... Badgers occupy open prairies and parklands. They are good paleoenvironmental indicators of grasslands..." (1977:465, 466).
And about the Eurasian badger, R. G. Klein (1971:141, 145) states: The badger (Meles meles) has lived during the Last Glacial at the upper Ob River, West Siberia, at 50-53°N. According to N. K. Vereshchagin and G. F. Baryshnikov (1984:487), the badger Meles meles, has lived during the late Pleistocene on the Russian Plain and Crimea, and in Siberia.
North American badger (Taxidea taxus). From: Grzimeks Enzyklopädie (1988:426) Volume 3. The North American badger (Taxidea taxus) and his cousin, the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) are living south of the southern limit of the zone of continuous permafrost, that is south of the subarctic zone. The North American badger has lived during the time of the woolly mammoth in central Alaska and central and northern Yukon, when there has been up there no permafrost.
Yukon/Alaskan Glacial Climate
The famous American paleontologist Elaine Anderson concludes: "The presence of badgers in Alaska during the late Pleistocene indicates a milder climate then, for today their northern distribution is limited by subarctic conditions." (1977:19). This means: There has been no permanently frozen ground in central Alaska and the northern Yukon Territory, when the badger Taxidea taxus was living there together with the woolly mammoth. The climate has not even been subarctic there, but temperate. - Other paleontologists, however, still do claim that Alaska and the Yukon during the Pleistocene Wisconsin/Würm Glaciation have had a severe arctic climate. It was supposed to have been then much colder up there, than it is now. – How does that now fit together? – Let us look first at the glacial climate of Yukon/Alaska.
Warmest Month
During the Last Ice Age, the climatic snowline in western Alaska was 900 m above present sea level. And in eastern Alaska and the western Yukon Territory it lay 1500 m above present sea level (Péwé 1975). Lapse rate in Alaska 0.49°C/100 m. The lowlands had then a mean July temperature of 4.41°C; the higher ground less. Eastern Alaska and the central western Yukon had then a July temperature in the valleys of 7.35°C, on the uplands less. The lower snowline during the Wisconsin Glaciation does show us that the summer was then much shorter, colder and wetter than now. Because the climatic snowline is directly connected with the mean air temperature of the warmest month. The land was covered with soggy tundra. It was so cold that trees were not able to grow up there, except, perhaps, in a few sheltered valleys (Péwé 1975). According to B. Frenzel (1992:41) the western Yukon and eastern Alaska were 4 to 6°C (or an average 5°C) colder than now during the warmest month of the year, during the peak of the Last Glaciation. Today it is 14°C. Hence, the mean July or August air temperature was then 9°C.
Annual Air Temperature and Permafrost
Central Alaska and the western Yukon do have now a mean annual air temperature of –6°C (4°-8°C (Péwé 1975). During the Last Glaciation it was 8°-10°C, or an average 9°C colder than now in central Alaska and the western Yukon. This gives us a mean annual air temperature of –15°C. During the Last Glaciation central Alaska and the Yukon had 800-m deep permafrost, with active ice wedges. Alaska’s present northern coast has now an annual air temperature of "only" –12°C (Péwé 1975). Permafrost temperature in central Alaska and the Yukon was –15°C x 1.32 = -19.8°C mean annual air temperature. This means. During the peak of the Last Ice Age, central Alaska must have been then just as cold, as it is now in the northern-most part of Greenland, with its mean annual air temperature of –20°C.
North America today
In which climate is the North American badger Taxidea taxus living now at the northern limit of its range. We should remember here: This is only marginal badger habitat. On its normal home range, further south, it is still warmer.
Lake Superior 47°N. 120 days above 10°C. 2000°C 10°C.ts. 600 mm P.E. 18°C July temperature. 3°C ann. air temperature. No permafrost. 45 kcal/cm² net radiation at earth’s surface.
Southern Manitoba, near U.S. border 49°N. 120 days above 10°C. 2000° 10°C.ts. 600 mm P.E. 18°C July temp. 4°C ann. air temp. No permafrost. 40 kcal/cm² net radiation at earth’s surface per year.
Alberta 58°N. 120 days above 10°C.1500° 10°C.ts. 500 mm P.E. 16°C July temp. 0° to 1°C ann. air temp. No permafrost. 32 kcal/cm² net radiation at earth’s surface per year.
Where the North American badger (Taxidea taxus) is living today, how far north in southern Canada (shaded and dotted area). From: Milan Novak et al. (eds.), Wild Furbearer Management and Conservation in North America (1987:595) Fig. 6.
Result
When North America’s badger Taxidea taxus was living in central Alaska and the northern Yukon Territory, together with the woolly mammoth, the climate up there was mild and temperate, without an arctic winter. There were then no permafrost, no ice wedges and no arctic tundra and no forest-tundra. Also today, the badger is staying south of the southern limit of permafrost, as already Elaine Anderson (1977) has noted. The climate at the present northern limit of North America’s badger does clearly show us, how warm it must have been at least, when this animal was living in central Alaska and the northern Yukon Territory.
There were then 120 days above 10°C per year. The temperature sum with days above 10°C was 1500-2000° per year. Annual potential evapotranspiration was 500-600 mm. The mean air temperature was 0°C to 4°C. There were then no permafrost, no ice wedges and no arctic tundra. Net radiation at the earth’s surface was 32 to 45 kcal/cm² per year. This is only marginal badger habitat. The normal climate, in which the badger is living now (and has lived then up North) was still warmer. Hence, the climate, wherein the badger and the woolly mammoth have lived during the late Pleistocene in central Alaska and the Northern Yukon has been then still warmer than this.