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....

Bring In the New Year with Bucky!

The New Year Badger!

...and unlike the collegiate athletic team who uses his visage....this Bucky's New Year's outing gave me something to be happy about...

You'll notice the individual above is much-fattened since the last video clip we got back in October (assuming its the same individual).

Badgers are not obligate hibernators.  They do, however, reduce activities and movement in the winter months (reviewed here).  When we saw him or her in the fall, I still thought it might have been a transient individual.  There has not been a resident Badger on this property in recent years.  Furthermore, a Badger did pass through in the fall of 2012, but this encounter yielded only one fleeting picture, which indicated it was a transient.

I'm assuming that this Badger has a den nearby, given that they tend to stay closer to their dens in the winter, and it has been bitterly cold these past weeks. 

Anyone who follows this blog may remember that I have a particular fondness for Mustelids.  And, of course, I grew up with a love of Badgers, having been born in Wisconsin.  Therefore, I am happy to have something related to Badgers that I can celebrate for the New Year!

Bucky, the Red-Tail and Others....

Mostly random stuff to post today....

I can't help but post another clip of the resident Badger (Taxidea taxus).  I just don't get them that often, so I get excited about any clip we get.

Then, another rarity, a raptor on the cams.  I have gotten Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) in the past (as well as a few other raptors, see here and here).  This is the first video clip, I think.

From what I can tell, this Red-tail appears to have nabbed something....

We still get some Canids, but they have become rare on this site lately....mostly becuase there has been an increase in human activity from the landowners.

I can't blame them at all for wanting to ride their ATVs on the property.  Plus, they are nice enough to let me use the land for my research, so I can't really complain.  Just a shame to see a real decline in the activity of some species on-site due to the ATVs....  Especially considering the the diversity I had seen on that tiny parcel prior to the ATVs (including Otters, Mink, Long-tailed Weasel, and Badgers).

Recently, we got a few fleeting shots of Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Coyotes (Canis latrans) on-site.  We hadn't seen either species since July, whereas the Red Fox in particular was a constant fixture in the previous two years.  We even had pups this spring, but shortly after the pups showed up, there was a real decrease in Canid activity on-site (which coincided with the greater ATV activity).

So, I was very happy to see some Canids on the cams this week, even if the Red Fox does look a little mangy....

 
Wil E. appears characteristically cautious....

There's also an impressive (but lazy-eyed) buck still occassionally running through the site.  He's also been pretty rare since the ATVs started moving around.  We now only see Bucks like this after there has been no ATV activity for a few days in a row. 

 

 

 

He's avoided the arrows so far (probably because he only appears to be active when its dark out, from what I can tell).  We'll see if he lasts the gun season.  Interestingly, I don't think he's one of the two bucks seen earlier in the year (see here).

That 18-pointer hasn't been back since the summer.