Tag: sow badger

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.

Badger

Badger, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of female badger at her den.
Badger Mom at Her Den

In the spring of 2009 this mother badger and her three cubs were very popular photo subjects in Yellowstone.  Her den was fairly close to the road.   She crossed the road often and I worried that she’d get hit.  I don’t think she ever did get hit, at least at that den site, but an awful lot of wildlife is killed on Yellowstone’s roads each year.