In my last post about the badger (Taxidea taxus) I discussed badger dens and showed a video of the the various species using, or at least visiting, old badger digs, and we saw that a badger revisited some of the dens. This time we look at badgers revisiting and scent marking side by side dens, as well as black-tailed jackrabbits sniffing the burrows between badger visits, as if to monitor the comings and goings of the predator. We also see a juvenile coyote sniff the burrow without scent marking.

The camera was targeting a pair of badger holes from April 20th through November 4th. At the time of camera placement there was sign of fresh digging, but even fresh digging by a badger does not mean that a badger is using the den, for badgers typically do not sleep in the same den for more than a few consecutive nights, unless the den houses a litter of young. But these two digs were clearly not natal dens, which can be identified by their extremely large throw mounds. They were hunting and/or sleeping digs, and I was curious to see who visited. I was primarily curious about coyotes because it’s not unusual to find a coyote scat on or near the throw mound of a badger dig. The other reason for my interest in coyotes is that coyotes and badgers have been known to hunt cooperatively, and I had hopes of seeing the two predators together, perhaps meeting up at a badger dig.

Interestingly, the only coyote visitor in this case was a juvenile sniffing but not scenting. I still haven’t observed a coyote-badger meetup, or even a coyote in the act of scenting a badger dig, but this footage did reveal some very interesting badger behavior. Watch the video and notice how the badgers insert their butts into the holes. What are they doing? Urinating? Scatting? Rubbing glands on the rim of the entry hole? Also look carefully at the white line along the back of each badger. It’s clear from the thickness of the line that there are at least two different individuals. The one that appears at 1 minute and 30 seconds into the video has a much thicker dorsal line than the very first badger.

So these burrows, which do not appear to have been occupied by any badger while the camera was in place (because no badger was ever seen entering or exiting the hole), became scent posts for multiple badgers.

Scent communication in wild North American badgers remains poorly understood. It is known that abdominal glands in males and anal glands in both sexes are conspicuous in summer during the breeding season, suggesting importance in communication. Observations of scenting include urinating and defecating at the den entrance and rubbing abdominal glands on the soil mound at the den entrance. (See my post Tracking Badgers in Wisconsin for a photo of the prints left by a badger dragging its abdomen.) I do not know if there have been any observations of badgers marking with anal glands but perhaps this is not done by rubbing: Perhaps the contents of anal glands are deposited with scat, as is the case for the anal sacs of the European badger (see final paragraph).

The badgers in my video above are probably not marking with abdominal glands, since their abdomens do not appear to make contact with the soil. Also, all of the marking events in my video were on the entry hole rim rather than the throw mound, where abdominal gland scenting is usually done. The following video, captured on trail camera by Eric Preston, may shed some light. It shows a male American badger scent marking in a similar manner on the rim of a burrow, but in this video you get a close-up view from behind. Notice the slightly vibrating tail, which brings to mind the bobcat’s tail vibrating while spraying urine. I don’t think that animal is rubbing any glands, because it doesn’t look like the abdomen or anal region makes contact with the soil. It’s probably urinating and possibly defecating. If defecating, it may be depositing anal gland contents.

I plan to do some more camera trapping at badger digs in an effort to observe different types of scent marking, as well as to look for badger-coyote interactions.

Finally, it’s interesting to consider the American badger’s much more social cousin, the European badger, Meles meles, because its scent marking behavior has been better studied. This species has a pair of anal sacs and a subcaudal (below the tail) gland. The contents of anal sacs are released with scat (which may or may not be the case for the American badger). The European badger’s subcaudal gland is used to mark objects in the territory as well as other members of the social group, which may include multiple families. They mark each other simultaneously by pressing their subcaudal glands together and sequentially by pressing the gland against a different body part of a group member. As far as I know, the American badger does not have a subcaudal gland.

Sources

• Elbroch, E. and C. McFarland. Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species. 2nd edition. Guilford, CT: Stackpole Books, 2019.
• Lindzey, F. G. 2003. Badger (Taxidea taxus). Pages 683-91 in G. A. Feldhammer et al., eds., Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation, 2nd edn. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• European Badger Behaviour — Scent-marking