Badgers and gangrenous legs

He's not looking for a salted leg, but he wouldn't pass it up if  he found one.

Would Badger run off with the salted gangrenous leg of a Texas Ranger?

You betcha.

Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae.

Recall that it was an American badger that absconded with Gus McCrae's amputated leg as Woodrow Call hauled the old Ranger's salted corpse back to Lonesome Dove.

Not a wolf or coyote.

I believe it was somewhere in Wyoming -- excellent badger country.

Burial in Texas was Gus's last wish, but it's a bumpy ride when you and your leg are lashed to a travois, even on the flat plains.

So the badger got a meal, and fate forever separated Gus's corpse from one good walking leg.