Partners in Carnivory.

Authors(s): K. A. Minta and S. C. Minta

Publication: Natural History

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Publication Date: 0000-00-00

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Abstract: Discusses the partnership between North American coyotes and badgers. Studies in northwestern Wyoming's Jackson Hole; Longstanding relationship between the two animals; Why they work together to hunt; Details. North America's coyotes and badgers have an ancient bond. A red-tailed hawk dives overhead, warming us to keep a proper distance from its nest. Chattering ground squirrels seem to be everywhere. Appreciative of all the side attractions, we again direct our attention downslope to a badger's radiotelemetry signal and a hunting coyote. Thick vegetation makes the badger harder to track than the coyote, but with the aid of telemetry signals we have been watching this pair hunt ground squirrels for more than an hour. We refocus our binoculars as the pair enter a dense squirrel colony. In pursuit of its quarry, the burrowing badger throws a plume of dirt into the air, while the alert coyote maneuvers through the adjacent sagebrush. Suddenly, the coyote becomes a blur of motion, scrambling and pouncing on a squirrel bolting from its exit hole several yards away from the digging badger, which quickly vanishes below ground, where we assume it is cornering and capturing a squirrel. (Badgers customarily eat their prey in the privacy of an underground burrow.) The satisfied coyote awaits the badger's return, but after twenty minutes it loses patience and trots off. Below ground, the badger is no doubt cooling off and resting after its meal. The close association and mutual tolerance displayed by these two carnivores have abruptly ended, and we can only anticipate our next chance at observing such a remarkable partnership. During our three-year study of North American badgers in northwestern Wyoming's Jackson Hole, we often came upon such two-species teams. A coyote (occasionally two or three) would work with one badger to capture a hapless Uinta ground squirrel at its burrow. Our study area was in the National Elk Refuge, a sagebrush-grassland community of flats, hollows, and aspen stands, where coyote and badger populations are very dense as a result of land management practices and restrictions on human visitors. Ground squirrels are deep in hibernation eight months of the year, but they are fairly active above ground in late spring to early summer, when new grasses and forbs are abundant. At this time, too, their population swells, and they become the chief prey for the two larger animals. Although rarely witnessed nowadays, the remarkable relationship between coyote and badger must be a longstanding one, because it is well recorded in the language, art, and folklore of western Native Americans. White Mountain Apache referred to the two species as cousins that travel together, and the Navajo portray them as hunting partners that call each other cousin. A pre-Columbian pot found in Casas Grandes, in northern Mexico, pictures the head of a coyote on one side and a badger on the other. Some Mexican Indians still refer to the badger as talcoyote, Aztec for "coyote of the earth." Early explorers and pioneers of the European invasion also wrote of this curious partnership, but few field biologists have reported the phenomenon, perhaps because badgers keep a very low profile in their current range and coyotes are wary of humans. On the Elk Refuge, however, coyotes are easier to spot; and when we saw a coyote conspicuously loitering, we often found a hunting badger nearby. The relationship is an odd partnership: the badger is a digging specialist; the coyote an opportunist. The omnivorous coyote is constantly on the lookout for potential food. Any disturbance in the environment -- such as a digging badger -- may attract its attention and provide an opportunity for a meal. Frequently, sheer curiosity seems to draw the coyote to the site of the badger activity. For its part, the badger has extremely acute senses of smell and hearing that enable it to detect prey through soil. Its compact and powerful musculature and skeleton are designed for breaking ground and burrowing. As soon as it senses a subterranean ground squirrel, the badger digs down to the burrow, enters it, and comers its intended victim. Often, however, burrows are interconnected, with a number of escape routes. The coyote is good at locating such exits and is as adept at pouncing, aboveground captures as the badger is at subterranean ones. A ground squirrel facing a two-species team is therefore at an extreme disadvantage, and we have found that coyotes working with badgers catch more squirrels than they would alone. Badgers pursue and eat most of their prey underground, so we have only indirect evidence that they are taking more prey because of the association. Their tolerance of coyotes, however, suggests that badgers, too, benefit from the relationship. Although badgers sometimes become aggressive if a coyote comes too close, there are moments when we understand how some people may be tempted to anthropomorphize a bit about a friendship between the species. We have seen hunting partners travel together over a period of weeks. And we have come upon coyotes briefly resting near or touching a badger, sometimes pawing at it. Occasionally, a badger reciprocated. We have even seen playful coyotes try to coax badgers into play. In general, however, badgers are impervious to the exuberant attentions of these members of the sociable dog family. Although we saw badgers and coyotes together year round, most of their partnerships are forged during the high season, when ground squirrels are active and scrambling above ground. Only the digging badger can capture hibernating ground squirrels, so when winter comes to the valley, some fair-weather friendships may cool, and hungry coyotes might start looking at badgers, especially the young of the year, as prey.

Keywords: animal, mammal, canine, Canidae, coyote, Canis latrans, behavior, badger, Mustelidae, Taxidae taxus, Jackson Hole, Teton County, National Elk Refuge, food, feeding, predation, squirrel, rodent, Rodentia, ground squirrel, Uinta ground squirrel , Spermophilus armatus