A badger was filmed while he was burying a cow in the Grassy Mountains of Utah. The researchers had the chance to observe it with hidden cameras.
Amazing images captured by a hidden camera show a badger digging a large hole to deposit the remains of a calf carcass. Such behavior had never before been observed in animals, says the Independent .
Badgers were known to bury food in the soil, as do mice and rabbits, and to recover meat from dead animals, but no one thought they could Body about four times heavier than theirs.
Researchers said that by burying bodies of dead animals, badgers could render a service to breeders as this would help prevent the spread of disease.
“Watching the badgers undertaking this type of massive excavation is impressive. They put a lot of excavation engineering into it, “says Ethan Frehner, lead author of an article on discovery, published in the Western North American Naturalist.
“It’s an enigmatic species. A substantial part of their existence takes place underground or during the night, so it is difficult to observe it directly. ”
Indeed, the researchers could only discover the little beast by watching the recording that their camera had made during the night. On these images, they could see the badger sitting on the spot where a calf’s body was a few days ago.
“I do not want to anthropomorphize too much, but it looks like a really bad, really happy badger, rolling in the mud and leading the great life,” says Buechley.
