Tag: den

Badger

American Badger

This is a close-up side view photo of a badger with its tail up.

Where did that gopher go?

This badger was digging at both ends of a gopher tunnel.  While he was digging at one end, the gopher escaped from the other end.  The badger didn’t see it, but somehow sensed it had left and did a little circle around the diggings and picked up the scent and got the gopher.  I was impressed.

It reminded me of a badger in Yellowstone at the picnic area near Yellowstone Bridge that entered a fox den and spent a day or two eating the food cache the fox parents had created.  When the badger entered the den, the fox kits escaped from a back entrance.  After a day or so eating the food cache, the badger left the den.  When it left it began smelling the ground, picked up a scent trail,  and made a bee line to the entrance of a nearby second den where the fox kits had gone.  It entered that second den, which we later learned didn’t have a second entrance/exit.  Unfortunately, the kits were trapped.  The badger spent the next day or two in that den and killed and ate all the kits.  It was a sad tale that unfolded over several days to a lot of photographers and viewers.  When I witness something like this I have to remind myself that this is an example of the balance of nature.  It’s worked very well until we humans came along.  Unfortunately, we’re making a mess of it.

Badger, Red Fox

The Last Week in May of 2013, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of red fox kits playing at den site.
Red Fox Kits at Play

I arrived in Yellowstone on Sunday afternoon, May 26.  The red fox den near the Yellowstone Picnic Area was the talk of the park.  Hundreds of people came to see the foxes.  The den was only 60 yards from the nearest picnic table.  The Park Service put up signs and cones to keep people 50 yards from the den.  Seeing the parents all day long was great, but the best times were when they let the kits out to play.

I had gotten some good fox kit photos last year so I wasn’t as inclined as some to watch and photograph the foxes all day long as many people were.  I would stop by once or twice a day to see what was happening.  As it turned out, I learned that on  Thursday that just before I arrived a badger and the vixen started fighting some distance up the road and the fight continued to the den.  Many people photographed the fight at the den entrance.  At this time the kits were in the den.  I learned that when the badger got in the hole one kit ran out of the den entrance and the other got out an escape hole.  The foxes had another den about 50 yards away and the the parents rounded up the kits and put them there.  The badger never came out that day.  It is likely that the vixen had stored food in the den and the badger presumably ate it.  One of the parents was usually at the den entrance waiting for the badger to come out.

Photo of a badger moving from the main den to the second den where the fox kits are hidden.
Badger moves from the main den to the other new den.

Everyone came back at the crack of dawn Friday morning.  On Friday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. the badger emerged from the den.  Neither fox was around, which was very unusual.  The badger went immediately to the other den and entered.  I don’t know if it had been to the other den before or it followed a scent trail.  When the mother returned she went to the new den site.  The badger had back-filled it and the vixen dug and dug, but the badger was able to fill it much faster than the vixen could dig.  The vixen bided her time outside the new den site.  I learned that the badger came out for a short time Saturday and there was another fight, but it was much shorter than the first fight and the badger went back into the new den.

There doesn’t seem to be any doubt but that the badger killed and ate the kits.

Another photographer told me that he talked to the NPS Ranger that had been there the day before and the Ranger told him that this pair of foxes has yet to successfully raise its kits.  I do remember hearing reports of foxes on the other side of  the picnic area last year, but I never saw them.  I think the photographer said that he was told the badger got the kits last year as well.

As I mentioned, I wasn’t there for the first fight.  (I missed the later one as well.)  Some people were there for the first fight though and they got good photos of it.  To see one person’s photos click here.

Another sad note is that the vixen that I photographed with her kits last May just outside the northeast entrance was hit by a car and killed.  Click here for my blog about her last year.  She left four kits.  One of them died, but someone is feeding the other kits.  But they have no one to teach them the secrets to living a long life as a fox.  Hopefully, it’s mostly in the genes.

Badger

Mother Badger with Ground Squirrel

Photo of a mother badger returning to her den with a ground squirrel in her mouth.
American Badger, Yellowstone National Park

Several photographers, including myself, waited for an hour or more for this mother badger to return to her den.  It was close to sundown when she returned with this live ground squirrel.  She was moving through the sagebrush at a fast pace.  The conversation going on got me distracted from what I was doing.  I hadn’t increased the ISO as it got darker.  The result was that I shot this at 1/320th of a second.  The badger is just bordering on being blurred.