The badger has frequently made its appearance in literature and comics but in real life, the elusive animal was sighted in Kalimpong recently.

A Burmese ferret badger, which is also known as the large-toothed ferret badger, was rescued from No 2 Staff Colony of Jhaldhaka Hydel Project near Kalimpong on February 1.

Praveen Katwal, forest ranger, Jhaldhaka division, said the animal had later been released at Paren ( a nearby area) by the staff. “When the animal was first spotted, the staff could not immediately identify it,” said Katwal.

Even though there are eight different types of badger, the Burmese ferret badger is native to southeast Asia, north eastern states of India and parts of Bengal.

However, sighting, rescue and release of the animal are rare in Bengal.

Kalimpong divisional forest officer Hari Krishnan said: “Rescue and release are rare as the animal is nocturnal and mostly active at night.”

Foresters could not immediately recall if the Burmese ferret badger had been photographed and recorded before release in the wild in Bengal before.

Even though the Burmese ferret badger has not yet been classified as a threatened species, various details of the omnivore like its social organisation, reproductive cycle and life history are still unknown.

Animal Diversity Web, which describes itself as an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification and conservation biology at the University of Michigan, says while the Burmese ferret badger has lived 10 years in captivity, “there are no data on the lifespan of Burmese ferret badgers in the wild”.

Another research paper available in public domain on the “first ever” sighting of the Burmese ferret badger in Bangladesh in 2008 states that two specimens and one sighting were reported from Jalpaiguri district, referring to notes from as early as 1917.

The paper underscores the recorded sighting a rarity in Bengal.