The badger-ferret is suspected by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of the possible intermediaries in the transmission of the bat coronavirus to humans.
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In their report published Monday, these experts mention on page 96 a list of animals that could have played this intermediary role, namely the simple domestic cat, the rabbit or the mink, but also rarer species such as the pangolin or raccoon dog (a canine that looks like a raccoon) that can be infected with the coronavirus.
The report also cites the civet and the badger-ferret, two species that were found to carry SARS in the early 2000s in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
The badger-ferret strongly resembles a cross between the two species.
The animal belongs to the mustelidae family, such as ferrets, badgers, weasels, otters, polecats or even minks.
With an adult size of between 33 and 43 centimeters, it is a small slender mammal, rather similar to the ferret and weighing between 1 and 3 kilos.
But with its white markings along the muzzle and back, its fur is reminiscent of a badger.
The badger-ferret is sometimes confused with … the civet, a feliform convinced to have been the intermediate host of SARS between the bat and the man during the epidemic of the years 2002-3.
Identified by the French zoologist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1831, the animal has five subspecies, namely the badgers-ferrets of China, Burma, Java, Borneo and Vietnam.
The Chinese subspecies (melogale moschata by its scientific name) is the most widespread and is found from India to southern China, including in the Wuhan region, where the first human cases of Covid-19 have been reported end of 2019.
The ferret badger adapts to many environments, from prairie to rainforest. It is a nocturnal animal that feeds on seeds, fruits, insects, worms or frogs.
Its sharp claws allow it to climb and sleep in trees.
Like the polecat, it defends itself by emitting a foul odor with the help of an anal gland.
If it is sometimes hunted for its fur, the badger-ferret is far from being an endangered species. On the contrary, it flourishes in close proximity to human activities.
According to a study carried out in a village in southeast China in the 1990s, badgers-ferrets tend to settle near farms, on piles of stones or wood where they roost. They evolve in rice paddies, cotton or soybean fields, in search of food.
Farmers put up with their presence because they hunt pests and do not attack poultry or livestock.