Photo Phriday 67

In the mid-1970s, I had the great fortune to do a bunch of capture work on a badger study in southwestern Idaho. I've been dealing with badgers ever since, except while in Alaska (no badgers in Alaska). Hard to believe that was nearly 50 years ago.


I currently don't set specifically for badgers, but it seems I pick up a couple in fox/coyote sets every year.



Their face markings are unique.



Here's a family I caught one night. Yellow eartags were put on youngsters, adults got red eartags.



I had a pet coyote during that time. He couldn't resist "nudging" the drugged badgers.

A lot of those din-o--mite critters just south of you Jack.
Back in the early 80's gett'n off work in the dark runn'n trap line on the way home had one more set to look at and it was a little bit of a hike to it, no flashlight had just my homemade catch pole and seen big catch circle but no critter. Picked up my chain to pull trap and ended up with a God awful noise about 12" from my hand and arm and was eyeball to eyeball with mouthful of teeth wanting to beat and chew me into ground up human bait pile. Mean suckers I tell you.

Badgers, mini wolverines...

Ive been wanting to illustrate more of these , so far Ive only done one, long ago. At a trap set with sheep wool attractant.

I find it interesting how different they look , from here, to Africa, England, etc. The American version seems to be the most sassy.

Really like the apricot fur tones amidst the blacks and whites .

Good share, Jack.

Oh the glory fur days when two hat manufactures were bidding up the prices at the auction...Cabelias and ???
Always like when it was time to grade them as they showed a wide range of coat fullness

Just think of how many pelts went into the underside of the saddle industry

Great pics.
From what I understand they prime up later than a lot of other furbearers.
None here,so never have trapped or skinned any,but I have worked with tanned badger pelts .
Nice fur,(variable character)and durable leather.

I used to target them in the early spring when working for Delta Waterfowl. They are a lot harder on ground nesting bird nests than most think.
They are easy to catch if you find where one is hanging out.

I remember when some samples were taken in to look at the internal parasites and there was one from the Common toad in the gut system . I believe Prof Walsh Uof Manitoba was the researcher

What kind of parasites do toads have?

Boco -

Yeah. Very late priming in badgers. Best ones I've seen over the years are in late February and March.



N of 50 -

Ticks very common. Hair mites fairly common. Fleas extremely common, and with Yersinia pestis. Plague (Black Death) still very prevalent in Idaho badgers with blood titers off the charts (high) in badgers with bubonic plague.

I think they prime up late due the amount of time they spend under ground below the frost line. It is surprising how long they can stay holed up.

Gulo, I have often wondered how a badger is able to cope with all the Dust they must inhale daily? Do they have a special way of filtering or expelling the dust from their lungs? I always enjoy Your Posts!! Thanks.

Most of my interest in exto-parasites is because when the plague broke out in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the depression of the 1930 much effort was put into flea research but they stopped at the Saskatchewan boarder on collecting mammals. As people depopulated the area and the self-sufficent farming lead to to large scale farming, the rat population decreased so did the plague incidents. there was some indication it was present in SW Sask only a couple of years ago.

That group picture of badgers was surprising to me. I always thought of badgers as being fairly solitary critters.

Thanks for sharing that.

cool pic, thanks for sharing

This was two years ago. My dad had went a few time with me and a buddy to set traps and he decided to set on his own. I went and helped him set traps. This as for a yote that he caught a skunk I had to come remove the skunk and reset because he did want to stink. These are not common in my area at all
. Sent me the picture I was pumped he was not, it wasn't a yote I said but it's the holy grail of Missouri atleaste our area lol

Gulo,
Always enjoy these, your pictures and life experiences are some of the best if not- best on this site.
Thanks

Thanks for sharing everyone, few years back.
Got this one, had it made into a fur hat.

Thats a Beauty,BTT

Yep, that's the size of the mini wolverines I'm used to seeing here, BT.

You know, Jack, yourself and F50 ruined my view of them. I used to think it would be neat to have them near me, but not after your description of all the crawley nasties they carry. UGH....

They sure do prime late. In my part of Michigan the season for trapping them ends in 2 days, on the 14th of November. Downstate they can trap them through February and those that I have trapped here during our area's season are absolutely no comparison to those zone 3 Badgers I mounted for customers that were taken mid-winter. The hair and fur is much thicker and longer on those winter Badger.