Fun with badgers

[Loup Loup]

As the alfalfa is has gotten too tall, I’ve switched from trapping pocket gophers to ground squirrels. Along with the squirrels here come the badgers. Took the ranch kids out the other day. They got to help release this one. Couple days later had another. As it takes me longer to wrangle the boys than to release a badger, and I was in a hurry, I didn’t pickup my helpers.
I’ve caught three badgers in the last 10 days. Don’t know if I’ve caught one badger three times, or three badgers one time.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Are the badgers helpful to the ranchers?

[Loup Loup]

Yea, these ranchers here don’t want the badgers killed. These family’s have a real economic drag caused by gophers, squirrels. A badgers one job in life is to eat gophers and squirrels.
That and I don’t kill badgers when they have pups in the hole and their pelt is unprime/valueless. Outside of this area I’ll kill badgers right along in the fall winter.
Course there’s nimrods who shoot every badger they can year round.
I had a big male badger that my dog would fight every time they saw each other for a year. Last time I saw him was in Nov when he and the dog rolled each other down the driveway. He held up in a culvert for 21/2 days. Been wondering where he was. I found him this spring in a feild 100 yards from the road. Left for the buzzards and maggots. Some one shot him through the fence then I’m sure bragged about what a brave hero he was.

[baldopepper]

Have had badgers around my place on and off for years. There's good and bad to them. Good is that they are prolific gopher eaters. Bad is the huge holes they dig. I hate it when my small tractor drops a wheel into the holes and yellow jackets love to nest in them. They also can get pretty aggressive at times, especially if you get to close to a hole with young in it.  Ranchers with horses around me are also not happy with the big holes they leave, rough on a horse when they step in em. I don't shoot them or hate them, they're just one more thing you learn to live with. I like finding blow snakes around more than finding badgers

[Sandberm]

They also make the future dens for Burrowing Owls.

[KNOPHISH]

Just spotted a badger while prairie dog shooting, cool watching him go hole to hole looking for food when he found one I shot. He grabbed it ran off then stopped to chow down. He was probably pretty full after finding a lot more.

[Loup Loup]

KNOPISH: how many you think he ate?

[KNOPHISH]

Only saw 1 but it was a killing field, there was plenty.

[Jpmiller]

Always did want a badger hat. We’ve got a lot around but I don’t see them much. Them and the coyotes have dens everywhere in the fields around. Does make for a bumpy ride even in the bigger four wheel drives. The neighbor with the quad trak says it’s just a hair smoother in those. Cool critters though. Like them a lot more than the coyotes.

[Loup Loup]

There’s two kinds (genetics) of badgers. Hair badgers, and fur badgers. Hair badgers have hair like a groundhog. A fur badger has beautiful silky, soft fur. I’ve talked to a furrier about making me a badger vest, but haven’t “pulled the trigger” yet.

[KNOPHISH]

Do the 2 types of badgers have different habitats or areas?

[Loup Loup]

Same badger. Just that one pup will be a hair badger, and the other pup could be hair or throw good fur. Probably similar to different fur colors in a litter of wolves.

[Jpmiller]

I’d never heard that, pretty darn cool/interesting. If I ever do get around to trying to target one or two I’ll have to pay attention to it.

I wonder do they come to a caller or how are you fishing them out of their dens?

[Loup Loup]

Jpmiller: Hair/fur, pretty much fur industry lingo. You being in ND I’m guessing pretty much all your badgers will be real good fur badgers. You have some of the best there. They prime up later than say coyotes. Best fur will be Feb/Mar. people have called them, but most effective method is to set traps near fresh diggings. #2 or #3 foothold trap.
I would say in Eastern Wa north of I90 mostly fur badgers. South of I90 more hair badgers. Course in the summer they all are crappy.
Good luck on catching that hat.