Yesterday I had a Jack rabbit get into one of my Yote snares and a Badger got there before I did. Nothing left but a batch of fur floating around and the back bone. This has happened in the past, but this time he dug a hole right there and spent the night. I made a meager attempt at snaring him, but as expected he tossed the snare and buried it when he came out of the hole. It got me thinking. Did he just drag it down the hole to save for later? I should have moved my trail camera over there yesterday, but didn't have time. It is there now, but I do not think he is in the hole as it is cleaned out pretty good. It has been my experience that they back fill the hole when they are in it, but I'm sure not 100% of the time. I will be adding some foot holds to the location tomorrow. Wucha think? Did he gobble it all up or store it? TIA

Badgers will take whole ears of corn into their 'den' hole in the winter.


I know, I know, badgers are carnivores, right? Thirty some years ago, an old guy told me about the corn, I thought he was blowin smoke. Turns out he was dead on, as I have seen it first hand.


Sorry I doubted you, Benny, Rest in peace



Charlie

I knew about the corn, and I guess I had seen the cow video before. It was just a surprise to me to see him dig a dang hole right in a perfect snare location. LOL

Got a call from a friend one morning saying he needed a badger killed. He said it had got in his chicken coop. I asked how many had it killed, he said "I don't know, but I can't find any of them!" This was my first year trapping in WY and my first experience with a badger so I was not prepared for what I found when I get there. In the coop was a pile of dirt 3 feet deep and about 4 x 4 at the base and no sign of the 19 hens. I could see where the badger had dug under the wall to get in and I could see that he had not come back out. I started digging inside and finally found where he had dug down and the tunnel went under the coop wall and under the building next to it. I found one hen in the tunnel, but nothing else as far as I could go with my shovel. I made the most sophisticated set I could think of by hanging the hen from the ceiling with a piece of hay twine and planting a #4 DLS under it. My buddy called the next morning to let me know that I had caught it and he had shot it. When I got there we could see feathers in the tunnel and since we knew the other 18 hens had literally not flown the coop, we figured that that badger had them all under that other building, but could not resist coming back out for the one that was missing.

They are truly amazing animals!

Wish I could 'Like' that post, to show my appreciation.

As it is; I've only ever dealt with the European species of badger. Extremely limited experience with even them.

I'd Love to hear from anyone with good experience between the two though. That'd be a story worth listening to!

Storing / Hoarding food though? What a fascinating concept! But; Aren't your badgers much more solitary creatures? Ours seem to live in more extended family groups. Down holes.

Hay I need 10 Badgers anyone

We had sort of a pet one when were kids. Sort of because it wasn't like he ever let us pet him. We would give him different things to eat...rabbits, venison, a carp or two, thst sort of thing. He usually took a few bites then buried the rest. Would dig that up later and eat it or he would carry it over to another part of the pen and re-bury it. Mom made us get rid of him eventually. He stunk, he destroyed the pen and dirt floor, and whatever he kept burying and stashing really stunk. Reading this thread made me remember that thing and what he did with food we gave it. Maybe he was stashing food for later? We never tried to give it corn i always thought they were meat eaters too. I caught a heck of a lot of badgers over the years in coyote dirtholes with aged baits, and many of those were in or near corn fields. Hmmm.
Jim

Badger populations have greatly increased where agriculture in their range has shifted to No-Till planting. Any of us observers have seen the reduction in the April-May disking of feed grains and noticed the increase in badger prey species but also the baby badgers weren't buried by all that tillage (critical time for them). Joe Jack always said if you see badger tracks in and out of the hole "he ain't in there", but if you see a partial or closed hole with no tracks "he's in there somewhere". Probably caching his food supply. Held true for me through the years. Skunk pods have been my best attractant and if using a BG at a fresh hole in February snow, a 5X5 is better than a 220 size as it catches the throat instead of the muscled shoulder. Hard to beat a coyote #2-#3 set but you will always need the shovel and 20 minutes here .LOL.......................................the mike

I hate to pull up to a set and seeing one of those diggers. They stink, are hard to skin and flesh, and then there's the bomb crater that has to be filled in. Seems like I catch 6-8 a year. I'm about to the point of selling them on the carcass if the weather is cold enough to hang.

Seen several through the years that will dig under a cow carcass and claim it as theirs. Live under and inside it after they get it hollowed out! They eat skunks readily, even seen the pods gone in some situations. Corn eaters they are for sure, set a "coon" toilet once, next day was a badger in the 220, laying on his back, with the same poop coming out of him! My bad! Had many experiences with them trough the years, much too much to write! One more, caught one in a fox set. Been trapping that area for quite a few years, and turning them all loose because early badgers aren't worth messing with. I pull up to the set, the set isn't torn up,which is unusual. Badger holds up his foot with the trap on it, as if to show me that he's caught. I get out and walk up to him, no fight at all, take him out of the trap with the catch pole, still no fight, let him go and he goes a little ways, turns around and looks at me for a bit, then just goes on! As if to say, thanks! Was the only badger I ever caught that didn't make a crater. They act dumb, but I feel their intellgence is higher than most give them credit for.....but the are fighters!

Short answer yes.. i think depends on whats available. manytimes ive seen a whole head sunflower stalk drug down the hole.. also have seen them bury and burrow under dead carcass as previously said.
one early spring there was fresh snow .. he came out of a monster hole that i knew was a den.. i followed his tracks all around my home quarter section... he investigated at least 30 holes would dig snow out ... some you could see he got a mouse nest.. most he just sniffed and went on.. he traveled well over a mile criss crossing field. i wonder how he knew where all them holes were being under snow... most were old and didnt have a mound. but he had his gps spot on and knew. he then went back to his big hole.... i set it up for at least 3 weeks and never got him.. i figgured it was a female with kits so i pulled..

I agree Lee, I think it is their attitude, not a lack of intelligence, that makes them easy to catch. They are chargey little buggars! Several times I have watched one ambling along, all of a sudden their head comes up, a couple of sniffs and then boom, they are digging.
!