We had about 2 inches of fresh snow saturday night, and I found this in the woods across the creek Sunday morning. All the dirt is on top of the snow and the tracks were very fresh.. There was no hole here previously. The snow was dry and fluffy so the track definition was not great.
The hole iss 6-8 inches in diameter. The tracks were 9-11 inches apart.

badger

Never seen one around here. Not common at all.

I put a camera on it, I'll give it a few days and check.

I dont know....yet

Camera s a good move

Fox

That's what I am leaning towards. Tracks and the hole size seem a bit small for coyote.

Way too early for woodchucks.

Maybe a Wisconsin badger.

We only have a couple things here that move that kind of dirt...woodchucks, and badgers.
I guess I've seen fox dens with about that size hole and dirt moving, but I generally see fox dirt digging and dirt moving more in spring when pups are being raised.

Let us know what you find on the camera.
Sometimes around here a badger hole isnt necessarily a den but more of what's left after they've excavated a hole digging out a pocket gopher or some other prey. Meaning, they dug it out, ate it, and moved on, which would make for some uneventful pics.

Also around here this time of year it usually takes a pretty good warmup to get badgers moving out of hibernation.
Just some thoughts...

Jim

Guessing fox

that description is why i think it was a badger. probably digging up a ground squirrel or something. cant see a fox making an excavation like that in cold earth, some of it froze most likely, over night. i hope your camera does get a picture. if i am wrong i would like to know. btw coyotes and fox both like to sniff around a new badger hole.

Badger would my guess I’m with Danny on this one looks like classic badger to me.

I have heard of badgers here, would be neat to see one.

Hopefully something shows up on camera, even if it is just a canine visiting.

The hole is about 5 yards off a well used deer trail.

Ground is frozen pretty good, very sandy/gravelly but completely saturated before it was frozen.

Pounding stakes in it is no fun.

Its Amazing they can dig this time of year

Badger here will dig a hole on a hard packed road they just don’t care.

I've only ever seen one badger dig, but have seen hundreds of fox digs and I am going for a badger.

Garry-

Tasmanian devil

Do I need a CITES tag for that?

Lol.......Warner Brothers can get you one......lol

Good comeback

Human - did you check it for a bedded trap?

Dang the ground is covered with snow. Plus from what I have seen a badger has a big foot. Don't you know what a fox/ yote/ dog track looks like????


I bet it's a gerbil. Buck tooth packis ratus.........

The tracks are depressions in the snow about an inch or an inch and a half across. Powdery snow doesn't take a nice track, its like dry sand.