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After Badger Buries Entire Cow Carcass, Scientists Go to the Tape

  

Category:  Health, Science & Technology

Via:  bob-nelson  •  7 years ago  •  12 comments

After Badger Buries Entire Cow Carcass, Scientists Go to the Tape

Original article by Nicholas Bakalar - NYT Science
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A badger captured on a trap camera after it buried a cow carcass.
Credit Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab/University of Utah

Scientists reviewing video from camera traps watched dumbfounded as a 16-pound badger worked four days to bury a 50-pound calf carcass.

Badgers, carnivores native to the American West, are generally nocturnal and spend most of their time in burrows. They are known to cache food to eat later — squirrels and rabbits, typically. No one has ever seen a badger put away such a large hunk of meat.

A selection of sequential trap camera images of a badger burying a cow carcass.
Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab/University of Utah

The scientists had put out seven calf carcasses in an attempt to study scavenging behavior. At one site, the carcass had completely disappeared. A look at video from the camera trap was enough to see what had happened.

After burying the carcass, the badger built a den next to his large food supply. No other badger visited the site.

“It’s a substantial undertaking,” said Ethan H. Frehner, an associate instructor in biology at the University of Utah.


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Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   seeder  Bob Nelson    7 years ago

Well... if squirrels can hoard acorns...

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika     7 years ago

One of the most voracious animals around. There are not many animals that want to take on a badger.

Rattlesnakes are prey to the Badger.

Interesting to see the video, I don't think I would want to try to take that carcass away from him.

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy    7 years ago

That's amazing! Badgers are the bad-asses of nature. So are the ones in Africa.

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kb6bWsa_LdQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Randy   7 years ago

We don't have any badgers around our area. Of course we have a badger dog...The fearless Doxie. Born and breed to hunt badgers.

 

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   seeder  Bob Nelson  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Wait a sec, K... Is that the same dog whose photo you posted the other day?

     laughing dude

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Bob Nelson   7 years ago

Indeed it is Bob...They are well known as badger hunters. Dachshund, translation, ''Badger Dog''...

Looks are deceiving, but don't be fooled she took on a red fox at the house and the fox turned tail.

 

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   seeder  Bob Nelson  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

It's true that she looked FEROCIOUS in that photo...  

I can easily see her taking on a critter that buries whole calves...  patience

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Bob Nelson   7 years ago

 

 

Herding cattle, hunting wild boar, badger it makes no difference to a Dachshund.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   seeder  Bob Nelson  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

OK

Dachshunds are wolverines in mufti... 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Bob Nelson   7 years ago

LOL

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

They are tough little dogs. My wife wants to get one after (I hate this thought) we lose the Shih-Tzus that we have now.

We didn't have badgers where I grew up in Michigan, but further north in the state's forests once upon a time we had Wolverines, which are pretty bad ass themselves. They are rare in Michigan now, which is a shame.

 

 
 

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