When two of Wyoming’s most cantankerous species — coyotes and badgers — set aside their differences and team up to go after prairie dogs and grounds squirrels, the rodents have nowhere to hide.
Between a badger’s relentless digging prowess and a coyote’s speed and agility, it’s a near-certainty that the burrowing varmints are going to end up being somebody’s lunch.
One Digs, The Other Waits
The tactics are straightforward. A badger and a coyote will team up and start cruising likely spots, sometimes walking in parallel lines.
When they spot an active rodent den, the badger will dive in and start digging. Meanwhile, the coyote will post itself outside likely escape exits, ready to snatch any critters the bust out trying to flee the badger.
Retired wildlife biologist Franz Camenzind of Jackson told Cowboy State Daily that he’s observed badgers and coyotes teaming up on numerous occasions.
“I’m sure they recognize each other’s abilities. They have to spend a lot of time together during the summers,” said Camenzind, who studied coyote behavior in and around the National Elk Refuge near Jackson.
Seeing Is Believing
Wildlife photographer Isabella Smedley admires both badgers and coyotes.
She’s taken many photos of a coyote called Limpy who lives in Yellowstone National Park and tries to sucker tourists out of snacks by looking pathetic along the roadside.
But when another photographer told her about coyotes and badgers hunting together, she had a hard time believing it.
After all, the two species are frequently rivals. On rare occasions, coyotes will even kill young badgers, if they catch them without a mother badger around to protect them, she said.
But then she saw the cooperative hunting for herself.
“They would walk parallel at the same time. They stop at the same time. They look where the other is looking,” she said.
Camenzind also said he’s seen coyotes and badgers walking in tandem, “sometimes over hundreds of yards.”
Though they usually give each other lots of space, the two predators don’t seem to mind getting near each other while hunting, he added.
“I’ve actually seen a coyote jump right over a badger,” he said.
First Come, First Served
As for who gets a bellyful of prairie dog, that often boils down to which gets to the hapless prey first, Camenzind and Smedley said.
“The badger will go into the den after the ground squirrels, and the coyote will go to the other side and wait,” Smedley said. “Whoever gets the ground squirrel first wins.”
Camenzind said that in the game of trimming back the rodent population, there are no sore losers.
“The badger will usually take the lead,” he said. “The badger will start digging around on a ground squirrel den and the coyote will start to jump around and try to find the exit.
“If the badger gets the prey first, the coyote just walks off, and if the coyote gets it first, and then the badger will just move on to the next den. I’ve never seen any fighting over it.”
Camenzind said he once observed a third party trying to get in on the action.
A badger and coyote were in the middle of their team effort “when a prairie falcon came soaring over, right about level with the top of the sagebrush,” he said.
“And I thought, those poor ground squirrels, everybody’s after them,” he said.
Beloved Species
Camenzind said that badgers and coyotes teaming up speaks to the craftiness of both species.
“It’s an interesting cooperative hunting strategy,” he said.
Smedley said she loves watching and photographing all of the wildlife in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, but she’ll always have a soft spot for coyotes and badgers.
“They are resilient, they are persistent and neither of them is afraid of anything,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
