Badger in my backyard!
☆ January 1, 2011
I have a badger in my backyard!
I love badgers…
(from afar.)
He showed up for a midwinter snack.
Badgers love prairie dogs, and there are prairie dogs in my backyard.
Well, there were.
This is like a badger pub crawl.
Can you imagine being a prairie dog, all burrowed in on a winter’s day, and suddenly THIS FACE fills up your living room???
. . .
Such cool tracks.
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January 1st, 2011 @ 7:43 pm
Awesome pictures. Guess the Badger was greeting everyone (unfortunate for some) for the new year.
January 1st, 2011 @ 7:53 pm
Love the sequence of photos! Badger “Pub Crawl” made me LOL!!! Happy New Year dear Shreve <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
January 1st, 2011 @ 7:53 pm
Whoops…..was supposed to make hearts. Oh well. Love love LOVE.
January 1st, 2011 @ 7:58 pm
Thanks for the badger story. Hope those prairie dogs are still snoozing peacefully. Happy new year to you and the farmily!
January 1st, 2011 @ 7:59 pm
Great pics! Feel sorry for the little prairie dogs, but I know that’s nature.
January 1st, 2011 @ 8:08 pm
Nature also in my own yard today,,,hawk took a sparrow right off the feeder.
Forever the food chain.
January 1st, 2011 @ 8:21 pm
I saw that badger marching in the Rose Parade this morning!
January 1st, 2011 @ 8:21 pm
That badger needs a dentist.
January 1st, 2011 @ 9:03 pm
This does not look like Mr. Nice Guy. … I’m not sure we have them here in NH
January 1st, 2011 @ 9:05 pm
Happy New Year!
Didn’t realize badgers were so ferocious looking!
January 1st, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
Badgers are ferocious little beasts–those teeth are not the worst of it, they have very nasty claws since they dig for their meals. I don’t think even the bigger predators like to mess with them, unless they’re desperate for food, because I have read that a badger can eviscerate an animal with its claws.
Pretty cool pictures of the tracks-thanks for sharing this, Shreve.
January 1st, 2011 @ 9:50 pm
Cool pictures…A badger is something I definitly do not want to see pop into my living room…scary looking little guy!
January 1st, 2011 @ 9:54 pm
very cool pictures of the tracks – thanks for sharing!
January 1st, 2011 @ 11:04 pm
Amazing! Hope that wasn’t your yard he dug up. Cool tracks though…wonder what Charlie thought?
January 2nd, 2011 @ 2:54 am
wondering if your Badgers are related to ours?
http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/
January 2nd, 2011 @ 3:12 am
Neat series of photos. For a moment though, I thought the prairie dog holes were prairie dog remains. We get wolverines in Finland. I haven’t seen any in the wild, but one escaped from the Helsinki zoo last winter, walked across the ice and then pretty much realized it kind of sucks to be outside the zoo, and went home again with very little encouragement from others.
January 2nd, 2011 @ 5:18 am
Yeah, just dropped by for a quick visit.;)
-Badger-
January 2nd, 2011 @ 6:07 am
Kind of funny I see this after dealing with a raccoon that went into my house through the cat door and into my parents room, proceeding to bite my poor dad (who is fighting cancer) while he slept. My brother took him to the emergency room.
The raccoon is being persistent, so I locked the cat door so he can’t get in again. Now what to do about four cats that prefer the backyard to the cat box and want in and out at all hours?
Any way to deal with nasty (and possibly rabid) raccoons?
January 2nd, 2011 @ 8:21 am
Be careful with Eli for a few days, we do have Badgers in Maine,also their cousins Fishers. I know Fishers have been known to go after cats, but their main prey is Porcupines.
January 2nd, 2011 @ 9:20 am
Cool tracks! I would be very unhappy if that face popped into my living room though. Happy New Year Shreve!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 9:55 am
Sierra ~ You will need a live trap – it’s a big metal box with a wire front door that gets tripped to close when the raccoon walks in the box.
Call a local entity like animal control, or a local branch of Game & Fish, Fish & Wildlife, or Wildlife Services – Google will give you phone numbers – to find out who to talk to in your area to help you with this – they will come and do it for you.
Raccoons are really easy to catch – just set the trap next to the cat door entrance and bait it with a large handful of catfood and an egg (raw in the shell) set way in the back of the trap. Live traps do not hurt the animal. I’ve caught a few raccoons this way over the years and I drive them twenty miles away to a nice new habitat with live water and lots of brush.
If you move the raccoon, you really must drive at least twenty miles or they will hoof it back to your place. However, if you’re worried about rabies, or if you have someone assist with the catch, moving the animal might not be an option.
Also – don’t worry about the trap being set with your cats around – if one of your cats wanders into the trap, it will not be harmed in any way, and it’s easy to see what is in the trap through the wire door and you can just let the cat out and reset for the raccoon. Your cats won’t get caught *with* the raccoon, they would have to walk in at exactly the same time (unlikely if not impossible). And from my tiny bit of experience, cats seem less inclined to walk into these things than raccoons, anyway.
Best luck to you and your father!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 11:30 am
“Badgers! We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers!”
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I love badgers because they play roles in British children’s books. And in the Narnia series, they are the ones most loyal to Aslan. Badgers never forget. (“Prince Caspian”, page 64.)
There are cuter pix of badgers at that “ontariobadgers” website…
January 2nd, 2011 @ 11:51 am
Kate is right, time for a deep pocket cleaning at the dentist Mr Badger….
Which reminds me…..never mind, I’ll wait a little while longer.
Mine are not as bad as his yet…
January 2nd, 2011 @ 12:16 pm
Sierra, pretty awful thing to happen. I recently heard from a friend that there is a contraption with a magnet or something that you put on your cat and the cat door will only open for the cat.
January 2nd, 2011 @ 12:21 pm
Julia–you’re talking about the Redwall series, right? I love those books too–but even they recognize how ferocious badgers are!
great pics and story, Shreve, as always. Happy New Year to you and yours :)
January 2nd, 2011 @ 2:42 pm
I don’t know what happened to this country, I am a raging liberal and even I know that some animals, such as raccoons, turn into disease vectoring vermin and sometimes you have to kill a few of them to remind them to stay away from your house. They are so acclimated to living near humans that they mostly no longer fear us. They are cute, smart, and ferocious, and they can propagate like bunnies. Catch one and kill it. They will stay away, for a while. They know about food chains too. You wouldn’t have revulsion to setting rat traps would you? Protect your Dad, and the cats, who shouldn’t have free run either. Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
January 2nd, 2011 @ 3:01 pm
Love badgers. Big, mean and nasty kind of love. They are so kewl!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
Happy New Year From Ontario Canada!
Yesterday we sat outside and basked in 50+ degree temps. Today we our back in the deep freeze and I am watching “ivory snow snow” fly outside my patio door.
Love the Badger story!
Today I watched a wild hawk nosh on a sushi brunch of chilled field mouse. Gross to watch but as mentioned above it is the food chain of life. Just wish he hadn’t crapped on my deck. UGH!!!
We have terrible problems with raccoons here. A major part of the problem is that Urbania is building out into their natural habitat.
We humanely trap them and we have a neighbour who has a farm and he releases them out there. Not all people or raccoons are as lucky.
A few years ago we had a very amusing “raccoon”
incident. We were awakened in the wee hours of the morning to this hellish howling and snorting. Got up and looked out the back upstairs window. Several of our neighbours were doing the same( can you say embarrassing). There were 2 raccooons out on our patio roof “doing the dirty”. No amount of banging on the window or yelling would frighten them from their “tryst”. My husband filled my dutch oven with cold water and thru it out the window on them. Mission Accomplished! AHEM!!! We had babies in early summer. Cute as all get out but they went out to the farm.
Beware of these creatures!
They can make your dogs very sick.
Get your dogs inocculated for raccooons.
Talk to your Vet!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 3:54 pm
How great is this!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 7:33 pm
Bad Gers!
January 2nd, 2011 @ 9:22 pm
I fail to see how killing an animal results in a learning moment.
But on to badgers… I once saw one by our woodpile and intending to get a photo I grabbed my camera and headed out the front door. We met nose to shin right at the corner of the house. This is how I learned that badgers flatten themselves when they are scared. I was pretty startled too and my photo wasn’t very good.
He looked like a brillo pad with legs as he made his waddling exit.
January 2nd, 2011 @ 9:49 pm
Badgers? How awesome! They are such awe-inspiring creatures- beautiful yet gruesome; powerful yet graceful. I’d love to see one in real life some day.
Did you know that Badgers and Coyotes have been known to work together in hunting Prairie Dogs?
Anyway, I’ll stop rambling. Happy New Year!
January 3rd, 2011 @ 8:17 am
I would wet my prairie-dog-pants if I saw that face!
January 3rd, 2011 @ 8:41 am
@Jon boy – that is such nonsense. Sorry…but it is. Raccoons do not understand food chains. I live on 15 acres of woods. Plenty of coons. You just have to be smarter than the coons. Lock up your trash and yes, get the cat door that requires a collar with a unlocking transmitter. Only your cats will be able to enter. If there isn’t a food source, the coons will move on.
As for the badger. Poor little praire dogs. Yes, badgers are quite ferocious. I would stay clear. However, I like them also. :)
January 3rd, 2011 @ 9:31 am
rawr!
January 3rd, 2011 @ 10:06 am
Sierra – The trap Shreve is referring to can also be purchased at some hardware or feed stores. I bought one at the local feed/hardware store to catch feral cats to get them spayed or neutered. The trap is called “Have a Heart” because it doesn’t hurt the animal you trap. I live by a park and have racoons come eat my cat food. They are afraid of humans so can’t believe one bit your dad. A friend of mine has a pet racoon. She got him neutered so he wouldn’t turn mean. He is so fat and happy now. She also is bottle feeding a baby possum – so cute. Oh and Jon Boy, I totally disagree that killing a racoon will keep them away. I agree with GD – remove the food source and they will look elsewhere for food.
January 3rd, 2011 @ 10:22 am
Now think about the cute little weenie dog.
The Daschund was bred to go into a Badger’s den and drag him out. Nature is so great! We have, in the mountain valley I live in, a Mountain Lioness who is an old pro and knows EXACTLY what she is doing and isn’t the least bit shy about it. One sunny afternoon she took a deer in a neighbor’s yard with half a dozen people standing on the deck watching.
everything has to eat…Be careful about Eli but, he’s an old pro, too!
January 3rd, 2011 @ 10:40 am
What a cute wee fellow! Those are awesome tracks, such symmetry! (Not hard when your legs are all the same length I know, but it’s still an awesome pattern).
Your American Badgers are quite different to the European Badger which graces the storybooks, he’s quite a bit different to Mr Toad’s friend.
January 3rd, 2011 @ 12:33 pm
I always thought Badgers were pretty cute and fluffy. I’d never really thought about their “war face”–that picture you linked to was frightening! Like others I cracked up at the pub crawl comment. Awesome:)
January 4th, 2011 @ 10:14 pm
it must have been a very high status badger. inside bager society only those high rank ever associate with coyotes.
January 5th, 2011 @ 3:37 am
Thanks for everyone’s advice on my raccoon problem. We got a trap from animal control and so far have caught a skunk one night and my cat Twoface the other. Twof was actually able to be tamed as a kitten with the use of a cat sized version of this type when her feral mother used our backyard as a nursery, so I guess she’s easily tricked.
We saw the coon sniff the trap, but didn’t go in. I’ll try the raw egg idea.
January 6th, 2011 @ 5:26 am
I used to adore badgers. Until a large one slaughtered my 6 hens last winter. It only took one away and left the others, torn to pieces. Except for one, who was still alive but had a shattered beak and had to be put down. Now, I don’t like badgers quite so much. I wouldn’t want the proposed cull to go ahead, but no, I wouldn’t miss them. I loved my girls, they all had names and I miss them.
January 7th, 2011 @ 3:35 pm
The BEST badger stories are the Frances books by Russell Hoban. I grew up on those books, they are so memorable.