{{Short description|Genus of carnivores}} {{Automatic taxobox | name = Stink badgers<ref name=msw3>{{MSW3 Carnivora|id=14001566|pages=622–623}}</ref> | image = Mydaus.png | image_caption = [[Sunda stink badger]] (''M. javanensis'') and [[Palawan stink badger]] (''M. marchei'') | taxon = Mydaus | authority = [[Frédéric Cuvier|Cuvier]], 1821<ref>{{cite book|last1=Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire|first1=Étienne|last2=Cuvier|first2=Frédéric|title=Histoire naturelle des mammifères|date=1821|location=Paris|pages=1–2|chapter-url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43945937|chapter=Le télagon|volume='''3''' (27)}}</ref> | type_species = ''[[Sunda stink badger|Mydaus meliceps]]''<ref>{{MSW3|id=14001566}}</ref> | subdivision_ranks = [[Species]] | subdivision = * ''[[Palawan stink badger|M. marchei]]'' * ''[[Sunda stink badger|M. javanensis]]'' | range_map = Mydaus areas.png | range_map_caption = ''Mydaus'' ranges }} [[File:Mydausskull.png|thumb|Skull and dentition, as illustrated in [[Paul Gervais|Gervais]]' ''Histoire naturelle des mammifères'']] [[File:Brehms Het Leven der Dieren Zoogdieren Orde 4 Stinkdas (Mydaus meliceps).jpg|thumb|''Mydaus javanensis'']]
'''Stink badgers''' or '''false badgers''' are the species of the [[genus]] '''''Mydaus''''' of the skunk family of [[carnivoran]]s, the [[Mephitidae]]. They resemble the better-known members of the family [[Mustelidae]] also termed '[[badger]]s' (which are themselves a [[polyphyletic]] group). There are only two extant species – the [[Palawan stink badger]] or ''pantot'' (''M. marchei''), and the [[Sunda stink badger]] or ''teledu'' (''M. javanensis''). They live west of the [[Wallace Line]]; the Sunda species on islands of the [[Greater Sunda Islands]], being [[Sumatra]], [[Java]], and [[Borneo]]; in Borneo the badger is found in [[Indonesia]], [[Malaysia]] and [[Brunei]]. The Palawan species lives in the [[Philippines|Philippine island]] of [[Palawan (island)|Palawan]] as well as the islands surrounding it.
Stink badgers are named for their resemblance to other badgers and for the foul-smelling secretions that they expel from anal glands in self-defense (which is stronger in the Sunda species).<ref name=badgerpages>[http://www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/stink-badgers.html Stink badgers at the Badger Pages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806070901/http://www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/stink-badgers.html |date=2007-08-06 }}</ref>
Stink badgers were traditionally thought to be related to Eurasian [[badger]]s in the [[subfamily]] [[Melinae]] of the weasel family of [[carnivoran]]s (the [[Mustelidae]]), but recent [[DNA]] analysis indicates they share a more recent common ancestor with [[skunk]]s, so experts have now placed them in the skunk family<ref name=badgerpages/><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Koepfli KP, Deere KA, Slater GJ, etal |title=Multigene phylogeny of the Mustelidae: resolving relationships, tempo and biogeographic history of a mammalian adaptive radiation |journal=BMC Biol. |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=4–5 |year=2008 |pmid=18275614 |doi=10.1186/1741-7007-6-10 |pmc=2276185 |doi-access=free }}</ref> (the [[Mephitidae]], which is the [[sister group]] of a [[clade]] composed of Mustelidae and [[Procyonidae]], with the [[red panda]] also assigned to one of the sister clades<ref name="Law-2018">{{Cite journal|last1= Law|first1=C. J.|last2= Slater|first2=G. J.|last3= Mehta|first3=R. S.|date= 2018-01-01|title= Lineage Diversity and Size Disparity in Musteloidea: Testing Patterns of Adaptive Radiation Using Molecular and Fossil-Based Methods |journal=[[Systematic Biology]] |volume= 67|issue= 1|pages= 127–144|doi= 10.1093/sysbio/syx047|pmid=28472434|doi-access= free}}</ref>). The two existing species are different enough from each other for the Palawan stink badger to be sometimes classified in its own genus, ''Suillotaxus''.<ref name=badgerpages/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Carnivora|C.}} {{Musteloidea|Mea.|state=collapsed}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q1507049}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Mephitidae]] [[Category:Stink badgers| ]] [[Category:Carnivorans of Malaysia]] [[Category:Mammals of Brunei]] [[Category:Mammals of Indonesia]] [[Category:Mammals of the Philippines]] [[Category:Taxa named by Frédéric Cuvier]] [[Category:Carnivorans of Borneo]]