I always thought badgers had fairly short and at least furry tails. I just saw an animal crawling along the top of a fence that certainly looked like it was a badger, yet it had a long, thin tail like a rat. So, it was either a very large, furry rat with badger features, or my knowledge of badgers is slipping, or it was something else entirely.

Trying to get a picture of badger tails, I fired up images.google.com, but I couldn't find any pics of badger tails.

I did, however, find this nice mug shot. And, I found a site specifically about badgers; the tail pictured here is what I thought all badgers had. That site, however, doesn't say whether the American badger has a furry or a rat-like tail.

I also found this collection of drawings. Some of those may not be work-safe; this one is not anywhere-on-this-earth-or-elsewhere-safe. I also found this site, which is also definitely not anywhere-on-this-earth-or-elsewhere-safe.