Prefers open areas and may also frequent brushlands with little ground cover. When inactive, occupies underground burrow. Occurs from below sea level to 3,600 m (Kyle et al. 2004), usually in relative dry grasslands and open forests (Rahme et al. 1995). May be active at any hour but is mainly nocturnal.

Most food is obtained by excavating the burrows of fossorial rodents. Ground squirrels are often major item in diet, as are pocket gophers, kangaroo rats, priairie-dogs, and mice; also eats scorpions, insects, snakes, lizards, and birds, especially when ground squirrel population is low (Messick and Hornocker 1981).

Its movements are restricted, especially in winter, and it shows a strong attachment to a home area. Estimated home ranges vary from 2 to 725 ha, changing seasonally (Sargeant and Warner 1972). It is active all year, but it may sleep in its den for several days or weeks during severe winter weather (Nowak 2005).

The species is distributed from southern Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and southern Ontario), over most of the northern, western and central United States, and south to Puebla and Baja California, Mexico (Wozencraft 1993, Long 1999).

In Canada, American Badger was designated as 'Not At Risk', whilst the two subspecies T. t. jeffersonii (British Columbia) and T. t. jacksoni (Ontario) were designated as 'Endangered' (COSEWIC 2000) with as few as 100 and 200 animals remaining, respectively (Newhouse and Kinley 2012).