Wild Animals of Yellowstone National Park

by Harold J. Brodrick

Many of the smaller animals, especially those of the rodent group, are known for the dens and runways that they dig, some of them becoming rather expert at this activity. Their burrowing activities, however, are undertaken primarily as a means of providing a suitable home for the animal. The Badger, however, is equipped by nature as an excavating machine. He, too, makes a burrow for use as a home but this is only a small part of his digging activities.

Porcupine

Badger

Badgers are equipped with large strong claws, especially on the forefeet, and backed by powerful muscles they can literally dig themselves out of sight in a surprisingly short time, throwing out a stream of dirt behind them like a mechanical elevator. It is this ability that he depends upon as a means of securing his food. Badgers are rather clumsy, heavy bodied and short legged animals, lacking the speed and dexterity needed to capture their prey in the open, but how they do like to dig for their food! Living primarily on the smaller rodents, especially ground squirrels, the badger snoops from burrow to burrow until his nose tells him that the occupant is at home, then dirt starts to fly. If the ground squirrel has provided his home with some extra entrances and he is quick to use one of them he may escape, otherwise the badger has secured a dinner.

Entirely beneficial from the standpoint of the kind of food he eats, the badger’s activities in obtaining it soon result in numerous holes throughout the area where his foraging operations are carried on. In areas where domestic stock are ranging these excavations made by the badgers are hazards to the stock and rancher alike, often resulting in a broken leg to the horse that steps into a hole and sometimes serious injury to the rider when he is thrown from the horse as it falls. In such areas this animal is usually hunted or trapped by man. In Yellowstone he is left to live an undisturbed life. The badger is a fearless and vicious little fighter, which combined with his digging ability makes him a match for anything but man and his gun.

Badgers inhabit the plains and prairies or open forests, wherever their principal food items of ground squirrel, gopher or prairie-dog can be obtained. They generally hibernate from October to March, except in the southern portions of their range. The young, probably averaging about three to a litter, are born in May or early June.

General description: A low, heavy bodied animal with short legs, short bushy tail and long shaggy fur. Color a silvery gray grizzled with black. Head rather small, broad and flat with black and white striped markings. Total length 28 inches and weight averaging about 14 pounds.

Where found: Northern part of the Park from Mammoth to Tower Junction and the Lamar Valley, in open sections. Occasionally seen in meadows of the interior parts of the park where the picket-pins are to be found. Badgers are not numerous, but could be called commonly seen residents, especially of the northern side of the park.