American badgers are prairie diggers built for open grassland, but Missouri’s 17 records cluster near Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Big Oak Tree State Park, and Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge, all wetland-forest reserves rather than open prairie. That mismatch likely says more about where people watch for wildlife than where badgers actually den, since Missouri sits at the damp eastern edge of a range centered on the drier Great Plains.
Most reports, 17 of 17, come from iNaturalist, meaning people are photographing a fairly recognizable animal rather than trapping it. September shows the strongest showing this year, with April and June close behind, though the small total keeps any single month from meaning much. NatureServe ranks the badger S3, Vulnerable, in Missouri, a real concern at the margin of its range.
