Baby Badgers!

There are a ton of things I should try and catch up on....  Wolves, snakes, turtles....my, oh my!

But, these just came across my computer screen today.  From my Advanced Ecology class.  I've posted about this class many times before....and as you may recall...camera trapping is a large component of the lab.  It's a spring semester lab.  I'm not one to do anything indoors, so our fieldwork is centered around what can be started in January.  Around our neck of the woods, January is cold and snowy....which limits what we can accomplish. 

Collecting data on mammals is, therefore, something we focus on.

On the last day of lab this spring....when I knew we were no longer in need of the cameras for class....I instructed my students to move their cameras over any existing burrow we could find.  Last year, we got some nice pics of a baby Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes).  This spring we got alot of nice Badger pics, and I was hoping one of the burrows would result in either Fox pups or Badger cubs.

The cameras sat out for four weeks untouched.....just too busy with the end of the semester and the beginning of the field season.

Today we finally checked and one of our eight burrow cameras was a bullseye!

The first two cameras I checked, however, were not very promising.  I mean...there were badger pictures, but they went until about May 5th, then suddenly stopped.

Here's one example...

...and another....

The latter pic is particularly awesome as it shows evidence of diet!  You can see the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel (Ictidomys=Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) in the Badger's mouth!  I was very excited by this, as I seem to never get cool pics of natural predation.....just of feral cats nabbing things.  The best part is that the wild predation captures wouldn't end here (see below).

While both of these captures were great....they were fleeting...and they weren't of babies!  The camera location that I thought was most promising looked abandoned today.  The burrow entrance appeared un-used....and almost as if it had been abandoned for a new location nearby (which we DIDN'T have a camera on!).  I was nervous we missed the cubs.

But, today while reviewing the pictures...at about the third camera card in, I got the big surprise.  Over 2,000 pics were taken by this camera.  A good sign!

Almost immediately, there was a picture of a Badger at this location.  It was the female sitting on top of the burrow alone the night after we placed the camera.  She also sat out briefly in the morning alone...

Then, a little fluff ball appeared next to her.

Soon, I could see two....

 

 

And the next day....THREE!

These three little ones looked like they were constantly in motion.  I don't think there are two pictures where they are in the same position.

The momma looked accordingly tired.  Constantly harrassed by her playfull offspring...

Sitting up at night near the burrow entrance....

And bringing back food for the young ones (here it's an Eastern Chipmunk; Tamias striatus)...

The poor girl must have been bushed.

But every time she'd sit down to rest.....the kids were on her!

 

Literally, ON HER....

Even when she moved....

 

...it didn't take them long to find her again....

....even if she kept moving....

 

....her cubs would not give her a second to herself....

 

You can see how it would make a parent tired!

Not only do they get after their momma....but they also get after eachother.

 

Sometimes the sibling rivalries gave momma a few seconds of much-needed shut-eye....

 But they always made their way back to her....

 

It didn't really matter how far away she moved....

 

Even though it clearly grew tiresome....

 

....she showed extreme patience....

All-in-all, we got over 2,500 pics of the little family over the course of four days.  The number of pics we got was astounding....some of which were pretty darn cool!

I'm very happy my students got to experience it....