We Have a Badger!

We Have a Badger!

The badger made an appearance at 8:30 a.m.

I was out cutting down the endlessly sprouting oak brush with a bladed weed eater in our yard about a week ago, when I saw a sizeable hole on the edge of our overlook.    A lot of gravelly rocks were dug out of it and left in a heap in front of the hole.  Looking at it later, I suspected that it was the workings of a badger and I’d kept an eye on the area from the windows of my home.  Recently, my efforts were rewarded.  It made an appearance on the top edge of my overlook!  I saw the movement and yelled to Jeepster, “There’s the badger!”  A window was open, but thankfully I didn’t scare it away.  I grabbed my camera and started shooting from the closest windows, with my flash off.

It sees me watching it with my camera through the window.

 I did some research on the internet and discovered that they kill and eat rattlesnakes!  It is thought that they are immune to their venom; however if bitten on the nose, they will die.  Other animals they prey on are, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, moles, birds, mice, rats, marmots, and rabbits.  They are very vicious creatures and seemingly fearless.

It flattened its body as it lay in wait for a victim.

 They fall prey to humans, bobcats, cougars, gray wolves, bears, golden eagles and coyotes; although there is sometimes a cooperative arrangement of sorts with a coyote in that a coyote will often wait outside a hole while the badger is digging and catch escaping prey.  Badgers are known to dig holes in many different places and then go back to check them out for critters that might be occupying them, such as rabbits.  They are said to not stay in any one hole for too long.

A Badger’s Den

The badger has come to the right place as we have a seemingly prolific population of ground squirrels and I know for a fact that there was a prairie dog on our property as I saw it scurry into its den one day near our drive.  I told the Jeepster and he decided to deposit urine in a coffee can and pour it into the den on several different days to show it who the “top dog” was.  Hopefully, the prairie dog took the hint and left.  I haven’t seen it lately, but time will tell. 

 Prior to the sighting of the badger, I had stood four feet from the den and took pictures.  I’d once seen a Forest Service exhibit which showed the skins of different animals.  One of the skins was that of a badger, but it was only about 15” long.  Let me tell you that this badger is almost 30” long!   After seeing the size of the animal, I can’t believe I stood that close to its den!  

 I heard a battle between animals a couple of mornings ago at dawn.  The sounds were coming from the badger’s area.  Naturally, I couldn’t see anything and wondered if a local bobcat had caught the badger.  It certainly sounded like an animal was getting the worst end of the deal.  Later that day, I placed some cut weeds over the hole to see if they might be pushed aside during the night.   The next day I saw that they were, but it still wasn’t any proof that a badger did it and not a rabbit.  But now I have shots of the badger!    I will be giving the den area a much wider berth from now on!

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Posted by normvance on Aug 19 2010. Filed under Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.