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A Ball for Ben Badger: Ben Badger came out of his tunnel and went across the grass to his favourite tree. There he began to sharpen his claws, up and down the trunk. Scratch, scratch, scratch, went Ben, making his claws sharper every minute. Suddenly, as he scratched, something fell plop, right on to his head.
Now, Ben’s favourite tree was an oak tree, and it was hard round oak apple that had dropped on to his head.
A Ball for Ben Badger: English Folktale
“Whatever was that?” thought Ben when the oak apple hit him, and he stopped scratching and looked round. There was the oak apple, lying on the grass. Ben went to look at it. He sniffed it, and as he sniffed his nose gave the oak apple a tap so that it began to roll again. “That is fine fun,” thought Ben, and ran after his ball.
In and out of the trees ran Ben, enjoying his game of nose-ball. Before long other badgers came out to play and they joined in the fun too. The wood seemed full of badgers all playing nose-ball. Up and down they went, not noticing that they were getting nearer to the river bank until suddenly, the ball rolled over the edge.
Sadly the badgers playing, and knew that the ball was lost. When he saw how sad Ben was looking he hopped along the branches of the oak tree until he found another oak apple, then he knocked it down with his beak. Plop, the hard round oak apple dropped on to Ben’s head. This time Ben didn’t say “Whatever was that?” for he knew what it was, and away he went for another game of nose-ball.
Badger:
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity. All belong to the caniform suborder of carnivoran mammals.
The badger is a medium-sized mammal that belongs to the family Mustelidae. There are several species of badgers, but the most well-known is the Eurasian badger (Meles meles), which is found in Europe, Asia, and parts of the Middle East. Badgers are known for their stocky build, short legs, and distinctive black and white facial markings.
