Coyote and Badger Caught Playing on Camera

Have you seen the adorable video of the coyote and badger we recently caught on camera? Though scientific studies and Native American records show that coyotes and badgers have been known to hunt together, this is the first documentation (that we know of) showing a coyote and badger using a human-made structure to travel together safely. It’s viewing gold!

Have a look:

There’s something about these two we just can’t seem to take our eyes off of.

It’s not uncommon for badgers and coyotes to hunt together. When they work together this way, it’s a little easier for them to catch their next meals, prey species like ground squirrels. But to see them moving through a small tunnel (or culvert) like this while playing is pretty surprising.

This video was captured recently as part of our research to better understand how wildlife move across the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. We have more than 50-remote sensor cameras helping us capture scenes like this, which we use to inform our land conservation work.

While badgers have been seen on occasion during our research, they are one of the more rare species for us to capture on camera. Since they prefer to spend most of their time underground, we don’t get a glimpse of them all that often. So, seeing one with a coyote moving through a small space like this is unusual.

With the information we’re collecting from this research, we are building a robust data set to identify the areas where wildlife can safely move across roadways, as well as the areas that need to be enhanced for safer crossing. It’s all part of our work to build a network of protected landscapes, something we’ve been working on since our founding in 1977.

It’s a real treat when we get videos like this that show some personality and remind us of the relationships between wild animals and how playful they can be. For more great wildlife videos, check out our recent post that goes into the details of this latest research.

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Thanks to all of our partners who are involved in the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains Wildlife Connectivity Study – particularly Pathways for Wildlife, SCL Ecological, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, The Nature Conservancy, and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. We are also grateful for the generous support of Resources Legacy Fund, Western Digital Foundation, and the Arthur L & Elaine V Johnson Foundation.