American badgers lead a solitary life, which means that most of the time they're loners.
Males and females consort briefly in the summer and early fall, and birth takes place in March and April.
The "mother family" is the most enduring social unit, but the family breaks up in the fall when the young strike out on their own.
This photo of two badgers was taken at the Chimineas Ranch on March 23.
Its hard to say what's going on.
We may be witnessing hanky-panky between consenting adults or an innocent game of "Gotcha" between siblings of last year's litter.
But the photo makes one point clear: one can learn a lot from camera trapping.
This single photo tells us that friendly social interactions take place outside of the seasonal periods of mating and family life.
There's still a lot to learn about the ecology of Striped-face.
=) OR, you could be witnessing an annual check up visit to the doctor. There is precious little understood about mammal health care, but this looks clinical to me, witness look of quiet concentration on the face of the physician. =)
ReplyDeleteThought provoking photo. Nice work. =)
I think you are onto something, and having been in that compromising position myself, I can only say it's something a codger shouldn't have missed. Thanks BB.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more of a "goose" job or perhaps just checking the Oil level. :)
ReplyDeleteJust saw a recent presentation on wolverines where they found out that the father often "visited" his offspring during the year even after they were on their own. Wouldn't surprise me if badgers were the same.
ReplyDeleteHey, we've got a think tank going on here,
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