anaguma 穴熊

Translation

anaguma means "Badger" in English.

Western vs. Eastern

In the west, the word "Badger" usually refers to the European Badger, which is black and white. In Japan, the word anaguma 穴熊 usually refers to the Japanese Badger, which is brown.

anaguma written with kanji is 穴熊.
These are jouyou kanji 常用漢字, taught in junior high, chuugakkou 中学校.

anaguma written with katakana is アナグマ.
anaguma written with hiragana is あなぐま.

kuma くま becomes guma ぐま in this word because of a change in pronunciation called rendaku.

Badgers are called anaguma because they live in "holes," ana 穴. More specifically, they live in a network of tunnels called called a "sett."

Scientific name: Meles.

Beware: some kanji that are difficult to handwrite are easy to type on the computer, which may skew the usage statistics.