A Wisconsin badger on a bottleneck, which in this case was a strip of land between two bodies of water. Beyond the trees in the background was a swamp. Behind the camera was another swamp.

Almost two years ago I wrote about tracking badgers in Wisconsin and setting camera traps for them. I did end up with some badger photos, but getting them was challenging. My first attempt involved targeting an old badger den and a travel corridor, and neither location was very productive. The problem with targeting a den is that most dens are inactive at any given time because badgers typically use each den for no more than a few nights. They dig a new one almost every night, often enlarging the burrow system of other animals, like ground squirrels, after consuming the occupants. The problem with targeting a travel corridor is that badgers trot at a good clip when on the move between hunting grounds. So all I got were a few extremely fuzzy photos of a badger whizzing by.

Clearly camera trapping this species was going to require a little more thought. So for round II, the cameras were stationed on a travel bottleneck that was also good hunting habitat. It was a narrow strip of land riddled with ground squirrel holes. Water on either side forced land mammals to travel on the narrow strip, and ground squirrel presence tempted foraging behavior on the part of the badger. This made for some pretty good photo shoots, once even in broad daylight.

Badger sticking its nose into a ground squirrel hole and hoping for a meal, no doubt.

Currently I’m exploring wildlife in the western US, and hope to study badger there, as well. Maybe someday I’ll get some video footage.

To learn about badger tracks and sign, read Tracking Badgers in Wisconsin.

Another of the badger’s day time poses.