xiii
Introduction
Did you know that a lone badger and a lone coyote,
enemies in nature, will actually work together in part-
nership to hunt prey? It’s true.
In the American West, from Canada down to Mexico,
this partnership has been observed and recorded. Indian
folklore describes it. Scientists have studied it. Poets and
authors of children’s picture books have tried to capture
it. Yet, despite all this attention, the extraordinary col-
laboration between the North American badger and the
coyote is still an unknown phenomenon to most people.
xiv ◾ Introduction
The area from the Mississippi west to the Pacic
Ocean is badger territory. The animal is about the size
of a pug or a schnauzer, with a wedge-shaped head,
powerful two-inch front claws, thick fur, loose skin,
and a keen sense of smell. It’s a strange little beast that
can tunnel beneath the ground with amazing power
and speed in search of its prey—usually prairie dogs or
ground squirrels. It is an excellent hunter.
The coyote, a larger mammal that weighs approxi-
mately 30 pounds and stands approximately two feet
tall, is found throughout the United States—you’ve
probably seen or heard one near your home. It is pro-
cient at killing both large and small animals, from deer
to rodents, prairie dogs, and ground squirrels.
Introduction ◾ xv
What the badger and the coyote have in common
is that they both are highly specialized hunters, but in
different ways. While the badger is built for digging and
burrowing and has a strong jaw for capturing and killing
prey, the coyote is fast and has a keen sense of hearing,
vision, and smell. It can often outrun its prey, provided
the prey remains aboveground and within reach.
Despite their differences, in the brushy, arid terrain
of the American West, a lone coyote and a lone badger
will often come together, touch noses, scan the land-
scape, and head off together in a bizarre, mixed-species
hunting party. Once the badger tracks down a ground
squirrel burrow, it will dig furiously in search of its prey.
Often, the prey will ee its den through one of many
available exits. And when it does, it will meet the coyote.
If the coyote catches the prey, it will reap the rewards of
hunting with the badger. If the prey detects the coyote
and scurries back into the den, the badger will capture it
and thereby reap the rewards of hunting with the coyote.
As a result of this collaboration, studies have found
that coyotes can increase their food consumption by
as much as 34 percent by hunting with badgers.
*
(It is
unknown precisely by how much the badger benets
from this collaboration, simply because the badger eats
its rewards underground and out of sight of researchers.)
Importantly, the badger and the coyote instinctively
know their limitations. This, in fact, is at the root of their
*
Steven C. Minta, Kathryn A. Minta, and Dale F. Lott, “Hunting
Associations between Badgers and Coyotes,” Journal of Mammalogy 73,
no. 4 (November 1992): 814–22.
xvi ◾ Introduction
collaboration: the coyote knows it is not good at burrow-
ing, and the badger knows it cannot outrun its prey. To
make up for their inadequacies (alas, we all have them),
they choose to work together despite their natural incli-
nation to distrust each other in the wild and to see each
other as competitors. In fact, when given the choice, the
coyote is more likely to opt to hunt with a badger than
to go it alone or with another of its own species. And it
is richly rewarded for this decision.
The badger takes a great risk by hunting with the
coyote. A pair of coyotes could easily kill an adult bad-
ger. But it does so because it too is richly rewarded by
the collaboration.
It begs the question: If two species of animal that
are hard-wired to compete for the same food—and
have been known to eat each other’s young—can nd
a way to work together, why can’t we?
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