Great Plains Natural Science Society
Date of this Version
12-2009
Document Type
Article
Citation
The Prairie Naturalist· 41 (3/4): December 2009, pp 129-130
Abstract
American badgers (Taxidea taxus) often visit black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies, most likely in search of prey (Lomolino and Smith 2004, Shaughnessy and Cifelli 2004). Badgers are well suited to hunting fossorial prey such as prairie dogs by excavating burrows and capturing individuals belowground (Lindzey 2003). However, the ecological literature is sparse regarding details of how badgers hunt and capture prairie dogs underground. Eads and Biggins (2008) documented three occurrences of a badger excavating prairie dogs. That badger (apparently the same individual) had a den within the prairie dog town where captures occurred. This note documents two additional observations
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Botany Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Systems Biology Commons, Weed Science Commons