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SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah researchers studying behaviors of badgers found an interesting new habit of badgers previously unknown about the mammals, according to a new study released Friday.
The researchers learned that badgers are capable of burying much larger mammals into the ground for food storage. The study included a time-lapse video that shows a badger burying a calf carcass.
“Watching badgers undertake this massive excavation around and underneath is impressive. It's a lot of excavation engineering they put into accomplishing this,” said Ethan Frehner, a senior at the U. and an author of the study, in a news release.
The results were also rather serendipitous, as the project didn’t begin to study badgers because one of the lead researchers primarily studies vultures and other birds of prey.
In 2016, Evan Buechley, a doctoral candidate, placed seven calf carcasses out at Grassy Mountains in Tooele County. Each carcass was equipped with a camera trap to document any scavengers in the area.
When he returned a week later, he was disappointed to discover one of the carcasses missing. After noticing the ground in the area of that carcass had been disturbed, he went to the camera and was stunned by what he saw.
The carcass was stolen by a badger, who dug it into the ground for storage. The study then focused on badgers, which there aren’t many studies on.
The badger, researchers found, wasn’t alone in this behavior. At another site and another time in the research, a second badger also attempted to bury a calf carcass for storage, indicating the behavior is common for badgers.
Buechley said the results are possibly impactful for ranchers, who he said normally see badgers as pests. He said badgers could bury carrion before it infects other cows.
“It's not beneficial to have rotting carcasses out among your other cattle because of disease vectors,” he said.
The results were published in Western North American Naturalist, and the study was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
