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ABSTRACT-The American badger (Taxidea taxus) has been documented only three times in Arkansas, all in counties of the Ozark physiographic region. Since 2003, 11 new records have been obtained from five counties (Craighead, Crittenden, Lawrence, Marion, Poinsett), mostly in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain physiographic region of northeastern Arkansas. Three of these were photo-documented roadkills (two other roadkills were collected for the mammal museum at Arkansas State University). Another photo-record was obtained by use of a wildlife camera placed at a den, which resulted in discovery of a family group of five individuals; this represents the first record of breeding in Arkansas. Rather than an eastward expansion of range from the Ozark Mountains, we believe the population originated from the alluvial plains of southeastern Missouri.
RESUMEN-El tej ón americano (Taxidea taxus) ha sido documentado solamente tres veces en Arkansas, todas en los condados de la regíon fiseogeográfica Ozark. Desde el 2003, 11 nuevos registros han sido obtenidos de cinco condados (Craighead, Crittenden, Lawrence, Marion, Poinsett), la mayoría en la regi ón fiseogeográfica Mississippi Alluvial Plain del noreste de Arkansas. Tres de estos fueron documentados fotográficamente de tejones atropellados por vehículos (dos otros tejones atropellados fueron colectados para el museo de mamíferos de Arkansas State University). Otro registro fotográfico fue obtenido usando una cámara para animales silvestres localizada en una guarida, lo cual result ó en el descubrimiento de un grupo familiar de cinco individuos; esta representa el primer registro de reproduccíon en Arkansas. En vez de una expansíon del rango geográfico de las montãnas Ozark, creemos que la poblacíon se originó por las llanuras aluviales del sudeste de Missouri.
The American badger (Taxidea taxus) generally is a grassland carnivore preying most heavily on burrowing rodents and rabbits (Lindzey, 2003). In the southeastern United States, American badgers are most common in plains habitats and are observed less often in historically forested areas (Bee et al., 1981; Caire et al., 1989; Davis and Schmidly, 1994). In recent years, however, American badgers have been documented extending their range southward in some northern states (Lindzey, 2003) and eastward in the northern United States (Nugent and Choate, 1970), Texas (Davis and Schmidly, 1994), and Oklahoma (Tumlison and Bastarache, 2008). This eastern expansion possibly resulted from changes in habitats caused by...