Female badgers prefer mating in the dark

LONDON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A British study of badgers' mating habits has found female badgers prefer to mate in the dark.

When the moon is full, female badgers become actively hostile, while during a new moon, female badgers are "tolerant or indifferent" to the advances of males, reported the Daily Telegraph.

"A possible evolutionary driver for this link with the lunar cycle is that badgers spend a long time copulating -- 90 minutes or more is not unusual," said study leader David Dixon. "This means that in the past, amorous badgers may have been at considerable risk from attack by wolves, lynx or bears unless they restricted their mating activities to when the countryside was cloaked in darkness."

The finding appears in next month's BBC Wildlife Magazine.