This is a story I have wanted to tell for a good while but it has taken me a while to get all of the photos together so I can show you what happened.
Years and years ago I read a story written by J. Frank Dobie about a coyote and a badger hunting together like they were friends. At the time I thought it was a great story but I never imagined it was true. About 20 years ago we watched a coyote near the Lamar River. It wandered around slowly on the north side of the road on the west side of the river for a while. It really looked like he had lost something and was looking for it. Then he crossed the road and continued wandering near the road. In a short period of time he found a badger and they began walking together. We were completely entranced. They didn’t go far. The badger started digging at a ground squirrel’s den and the coyote immediately positioned himself at another hole in the same den. The coyote just sat there but watched the hole very intently. After a minute or two a ground squirrel ran out of the hole the coyote was watching and the coyote grabbed it.
It would have been great to say the two kept hunting together and the badger then got a ground squirrel. But that is not what happened. The coyote was happy, so he wandered off. It was over. The poor badger got robbed!
We then began asking friends if they had ever seen this behavior before. We found one person who had seen it, but couldn’t find anyone who had filmed it.
In late May of the spring of 2012 we were driving the Slough Creek Road. Most of the snow had melted and the grass and a few flowers had started growing. The park was greening up. Suddenly it began to snow a lot, but it didn’t stick. As we came around a corner where the dirt road gets close to the creek we saw a coyote wandering around. He was really wet from the snow but that didn’t seem to bother him. We quickly realized he was acting like the coyote we had seen so long ago. He was looking for a badger! We immediately got out the cameras and got ready while trying to keep the heavy snow off our cameras.
The coyote walked around briefly and then went to a hole and sniffed.
We wondered if it was a badger den and this was the coyote’s way of knocking on the badger’s door? Our thoughts were answered pretty quickly when a badger emerged. They started walking, with the coyote following the badger this time. The badger found a ground squirrel hole and started digging. The coyote stood really close as the badger dug.
But after a minute or two he began to watch a nearby hole we assumed was one of the ground squirrel’s exit holes.
It was almost an exact repeat performance of 20 years ago. The coyote spotted something and quickly ran to the ground squirrel’s exit hole and grabbed the exiting squirrel.
The coyote swallowed the squirrel quickly and then started watching the badger again. At first the badger just sat on the dirt pile he had created.
I think the badger was disgusted it had been used because it then began to walk away at a rapid pace. The coyote started to follow but the badger turned around and let him know he was not wanted. The coyote sat down and looked pretty dejected as the snow continued to fall on him.
We have now witnessed coyotes and badgers hunting together twice and know one other person that has seen it once. Interestingly all three events happened within a couple of miles of the Lamar River bridge in Yellowstone.
Have you ever seen a coyote and badger hunting together? If you have I would really like to hear about it.
Our photos are available at www.vernelehmberg.com where you will find over 4,000 photos from Africa to Yellowstone.
What a great story Judy! I, too, imagined that the coyote knocked at the badger’s door after seeing this behavior. I watched a coyote one morning and it was trying to dig but not getting anywhere – it paused frequently, looking int he direction of the badger den, waiting for its friend to emerge. Badgers do not appear to be early risers.