The European badger (Meles meles), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large stable population size, and is thought to be increasing in some regions. Several subspecies are recognized with the nominate subspecies (M. m. meles) predominating in most of Europe. In Europe, where no other badger species commonly occurs, it is generally just called the "badger".