Amid the controversy of half-time Super Bowl dazzle and speech-tearing political pandering plaguing the ‘net this week, an unlikely pair of furbearers are the most recent internet celebrities thanks to their upbeat behest to accompany each other on a suburban hunt for a meal.
Unless you’ve been living under a web-based rock for the past 48 hours, you’re likely aware of the viral video showcasing a charismatic coyote bounding with a badger as the duo trots through a highway culvert near the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The video, which was first posted on Twitter two days ago, was originally captured via trail camera by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) back in November.
Check out the brief clip making headlines:
POST’s wildlife linkages program manager, Neal Sharma, told CNN that the organization believes the footage is the first documented case of the unlikely pair utilizing a man-made structure for travel. “Having that interaction on film and seeing how these two different animals that lead different lives, how they interact, it’s just so exciting.” he said.
First impressions of the video had me thinking the documentation of the duo surely must be an unintentional fluke in nature. And while others across social media were likening the footage to clear proof that Disney fairy tales are legit, I needed real understanding and rational insight.
As it turns out, Sharma’s comments regarding the footage being the first to document the pair’s usage of a culvert is, in fact, true - but its far from the first case of badgers and coyotes working cohesively on a hunt. On the contrary, with a little quick web searching, it turns out documentation of such teamwork between coyotes and badgers appears to be quite frequent!
A Predatory Collaboration
To gather further insight into this phenomenon, one must travel back three years to a prairie in northern Colorado. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reported photographers and a trail camera setup captured photos of the crafty carnivores in blatant partnership near the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center. The photos speak for themselves; this clearly wasn’t a case of two predators coming across each other at a kill site - these two species, a coyote, and a badger, were actually working in conjunction. Several videos exist online documenting the exact same ordeal playing out time and time again, including one posted a year earlier than the USF&WS release in 2015 by EPIC Nature.
A coyote and a badger survey the prairie. (Photo | Kimberly Fraser, USFWS)
The video, narrated by Judy Lehmberg, depicts her accounts of observing partnership roles between badgers and coyotes on two separate occasions in Yellowstone National Park. She goes on to explain the tandem-like working relationship between badgers and coyotes as they hunt for ground squirrels; with badgers tending to dig into squirrel burrows while the anxious coyote waits at an alternate burrow exit for its evacuating prey. The badger will dig into ground squirrels’ dens - once the prey surfaces, the coyote can chase it down.
This isn’t just a series of viral web videos either. A study from 1992 published in the Journal of Mammalogy, titled “Hunting Associations between Badgers and Coyotes” dives deeper into the most curious of partnerships.
“Coyotes (Canis latrans) associating with badgers (Taxidea taxus) appeared to hunt Uinta ground squirrels (Spermophilus armatus) more effectively than lone coyotes. Coyotes with badgers consumed prey at higher rates and had an expanded habitat base and lower locomotion costs. Badgers with coyotes spent more time below ground and active, and probably had decreased locomotion and excavation costs. Overall, prey vulnerability appeared to increase when both carnivores hunted in partnership.” the study notes.
While it appears the coyote tends to be the breadwinner more often than not in this odd partnership of predators, badgers also benefit by their high-strung prey being forced into making a hard-pressed decision on an exist strategy with hungry teeth and claws awaiting at multiple den entrance points.
Researchers at the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming found that 90% of all coyote-badger hunts featured one of each animal, while about 9% involved one badger with two coyotes. Just 1% saw a lone badger join a coyote trio.
In the case of the most recent California video clip, the typically ornery badger appears to tolerate its giddy counterpart rather patiently.
Birds of a Feather
Discovering the commensal hunting tactics of the coyote and the badger, my mind immediately wandered to those strange little sucker fish you see attached to sharks in wildlife documentaries. Or, that of Oxpecker birds, who tend to feed on ectoparasites and blood from wounds whilst riding on the backs of host animals such as Giraffe, Buffalo, Rhinos, and Hippos.
Turns out my train of thought towards scavenger birds isn’t far off. Any hunter worth his salt knows birds such as Jays and Crows will readily sound the alarm of an animal carcass near by.
In Bernd Heinrich’s classic Mind of the Raven, the uncanny intelligence of commensal hunting is showcased in a far more sinister form. Heinrich tells the tale of a Colorado woman working outside her cabin as a boisterous raven continues to fly over her at low levels only to repeatedly land on a perch nearby. She begins to question the bird’s odd behavior, and wonder if it is trying to tell her something. Its after a brief passing of time that she sees a cougar just a few feet away - crouched and ready to pounce. Typical of the human psyche, the woman assumes the raven was warning her of the danger; but Heinrich explains, the raven’s constant calling and signaling toward the woman’s locale was likely communicating with the cougar, leading the predator toward easy prey.
The bird’s motivation, according to Heinrich, is self-serving, as the raven requires the strength of a carnivore to tear into the thick hides of most edible protein-based fare - human or nonhuman. Mammalian scavengers are conditioned to listen for the cries of jays and ravens like a dinner bell.
(Photo | Kimberly Fraser, USFWS)
In the case of our charismatic duo of coyote and badger skipping happily into the highway culvert - its worthy to note that, as is the case with all of natures intricacies, the two species do occasionally end up preying upon each other. Also noteworthy, while clear associations between different species of animals have been frequently referenced for mutual protection, harborage, or sustenance, similar associations between primary predator species are far less harmonizing.
In other words, the partnership between badger and coyote may seem like a fairy tale happy ending - something tells me the two species won’t be sharing the spoils of their concerted efforts any time soon!