Hole bear

I wonder what it is that draws the eye to the almost invisible blobs of life in the undergrowth. I don't think the dog saw or heard the badger we encountered on our walk today. It was up on top of one of the embankment walls that hold the mountain off of the road. At first a distant blob of fur, through the binoculars and then later much closer, but similarly ill defined due to the huge fluffiness of the tail hiding any body detail when viewed from the blunt end I approached it along the road. 

Finally the critter got a whiff of something suspicious that made him abandon his exposed cat walk and creep off up the slope through the palisade of mini bamboo stems. As he ascended he became visible in the side view and the general mode of being seemed to deserve the name hole bear (Anaguma).  The fur is a sandy brown that blends in well and the head stripes are much less defined than in the european badger, the most bearish feature apart from the rather "unseeing" eyes was the heavily clawed feat flexing out to find wholesome points of contact among the stabby stems.    Interesting to see all this in perfect daylight.