Do Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together?
- bioworld090
- Aug 6, 2022
- 2 min read
Image Credit: Reddit
Coyotes and American badgers are two carnivorous animals native to North America. Coyotes belong to the Canidae family or the dog family and badgers belong to the Mustelidae family. Although very different from each other, they have somehow managed to form an unusual relationship with each other. So,
what kind of relationship do they have with each other?
Coyotes and badgers have a weird relationship in which they work as a team to hunt animals. This is usually seen in the summer season because, in winters, prey animals like prairie dogs, ground squirrels, etc. spend their time in their burrows and are less active, so badgers can successfully hunt on their own.
Generally, one coyote and one badger are seen together but sometimes one badger with two coyotes is also seen. Very rarely, a team of three coyotes and one badger is seen.
Even though coyotes and badgers hunt together, there is no evidence of them sharing their food with each other. In fact, they compete for the same food. So,
why do two competitors join hands to hunt the same food?
Coyotes and badgers work together because their chances of getting food increase significantly when working together as compared to hunting on their own. The energy expenditure on finding food is also less when working as a team. Data from a study suggests that a coyote's chances of getting food increase by 33% when hunting alongside a badger. This is because both the animals have different sets of skills and when they work together, they combine their skill sets. For instance, badgers are great at digging and coyotes are great at stalking and chasing the prey on the ground.
Let's say a team of a coyote and a badger finds a burrow of ground squirrels or prairie dogs.
The prey lives in complex burrows with more than one opening for entry and exit, so when they sense that the prey is in the burrow, the badger starts digging at one hole and the coyote stands at some nearby hole. The prey, in an effort to escape from the badger, leaves its burrow either from the opening where the coyote might be or from some other opening. If the prey tries to escape from the opening where the coyote is, the coyote pounces on it and if the prey leaves from some other opening, the coyote chases it.
It might seem like it is always the coyote that gets the benefit from this relationship but it's not. If the prey can leave its burrow to escape from the badger, it can also go into its burrow to escape from the coyote which provides the badger with an opportunity to hunt.
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