Gilbert, the family pet
Photos by SCOTT THOMPSON Rachael Spangelo carries Gilbert the badger from his enclosure to the house for his dinner at the McFarland White Ranch in Two Dot, Mont.
Gilbert the badger eats his dinner in the kitchen with his owner, Mac White, on the McFarland White Ranch in Two Dot, Mont.
TWO DOT, Mont. — Mac and Melody White operate a cattle ranch near this speck on the map in south-central Montana, on the edge of the Crazy Mountains west of Harlowton, whose snow-dolloped peaks earlier this fall were worthy of a postcard.
Down in the valley, a big bull moose grazed in a field not far from the main ranch house.
A week earlier, a grizzly bear had been confirmed in the Two Dot vicinity.
“This is Gilbert the badger,” says White, introducing an unusual pet that’s really the crazy sight to see in these parts.
How a stout, cantankerous American badger, listed by Discovery as one of the top 10 most fearsome predators in North America, became part of the family at the McFarland White Ranch was happenstance.
White found him, so small at the time he fit in his hand, apparently abandoned.
A hawk was nearby.
White came to the rescue, and then decided to give Gilbert to his wife, Melody, for a Mother’s Day present.
Melody thought it was a puppy when she reached into the cage to grab it.
That was 16 years ago.
“He’s an old badger,” White says.
When Gilbert was younger, the family would leash the badger like a dog and bring him along on trips to town for football games and other events.
“They’re kind of between a cat and a dog,” White says of Gilbert’s temperament.
These days, the family keeps some of the younger dogs and Gilbert apart mostly because the badger doesn’t like noise, and White thinks one of the larger dogs could harm the aging short-legged carnivore.
“He wants to be in his hole and left alone but he will fight hard to get in his hole to be left alone,” White says.
The badger doesn’t raise a hair on the back of other family pets.
“He and Moon get along fine,” White says.
Moon is a 16-year-old Weimaraner hunting dog that walks with a limp.
Moon is lying on a rug in the kitchen and doesn’t budge when White places a metal bowl filled with dog food on the floor for Gilbert, and the badger begins wolfing it down.
White teases him, pulling the bowl away.
“Tink.”
It’s the sound of Gilbert hooking the edge of the metal bowl with his huge curved fore claws, which are several inches long.
He pulls the bowl back.
Low Rider, a 20-year-old cat, is stretched out in a table chair just above Moon the dog, looking remarkably unconcerned a 25-pound badger is in the house eating a meal a few feet away.
Gilbert also uses the half-moon claws to open the refrigerator and cupboard doors.
“He’ll never relax,” White says.
Although he goes by Mac, White’s first name is Gilbert and Gilbert the badger is named after him. Although he prefers holes and doesn’t care too much for people, Gilbert the badger is no stranger to the spotlight.
“If you Google ‘Gilbert the badger,’ he comes up,” Melody White says.
The badger spends a lot of time in a long kennel filled with dirt within walking distance of the house.
“He moves that dirt around all the time,” White says.
“Hey buddy!” White yells as he approaches the kennel.
Gilbert appears.
“Oh yes,” White assures when asked if Gilbert can be petted. “He won’t eat you.”
Gilbert’s been known to bite, however.
White says it’s only when he’s tormented.
Rachael Spangelo, a ranch employee, picks up the gray ball of fur with a fire in his belly for digging and carries him to the house.
With compact, heavy bodies and white strips over the top of their heads, badgers are hard to mistake.
They are built low to the ground, with partially webbed toes and long claws perfect for digging and feeding on burrowing prey and also birds and even rattlesnakes, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Gilbert recently dug up and ate a family of woodchucks, but regularly shows up at the house looking for an easy meal, too.
“He kind of likes watermelon,” says White, and drumsticks and pork chops, too.