Our friend Stan Gehrt who has been strudying coyotes in Chicago for years was recently recruited by the State of Ohio to research a re-building American Badger population. Usually thought of a Western USA Plains resident, the badger is a grassland specialist......... 55 of Ohio's 88 Counties offer enough of this preferred habitat for the badger to have taken up residence............Like coyotes, they are omnivores and will eat anything from rodents to eggs to fruit............In fact, the literature is filled with references to the badger and the coyote teaming up to hunt myriad prey................The badger "digs" out the rodents..............the coyote nabs them...............they share the meal!......

Buckeye Badgers: You won't see them often, but they're there

There could be more than 100 in Ohio, but they are rarely seen. Most Ohioans have no idea there is a growing population of American badgers in the Buckeye State."Badgers, around here?" said Jim Sass, an Ottawa County commissioner who retired as a wildlife manager at Magee Marsh. Sass said he hadn't seen or heard of badgers in Ohio during his tenure working with wildlife.
However, Stan Gehrt, associate professor at the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University, said that's not surprising."There's really no good way to census badgers," he said, going on to explain the two major problems with locating badgers. The first, he said, is they are nocturnal creatures. When they are awake, they spend most of their time underground. "They're omnivorous," Gehrt said, "so they'll eat anything."That includes rodents, chipmunks, bird eggs, reptiles, fruits and more.
Gehrt said there have been sporadic sightings of the squat mammals, which can weigh up to 24 pounds, since the early 1960s. Badgers have been designated as a species of concern by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and have been protected since the late 1990s. According to researchers, Richland, Crawford, Hardin, Union, Knox, Morrow, Ashland, Holmes, Huron, Seneca, Medina, Stark and Wayne counties each have about 10 badgers.
"When they move along the ground, they sort of look like a hovercraft," he said. Ben Ballinger, who lives in Preble County on the Indiana border, said he has been hunting for 20 years. He saw a badger for the first time recently. "I was afraid of it," Ballinger said. "I saw his claws, he was right underneath my deer stand." Ballinger said he wanted to take a picture of it, but he was afraid."I heard they can climb trees," he said. Ballinger said at first he thought it was a skunk, but when he didn't see a tail, he knew it was a badger. "It was about 20 pounds," he said, "twice the size of a skunk."
Ohio State University researcher Jared Duquette, who was recruited to help Gehrt study Ohio badgers, found them in 55 of the state's 88 counties. Duquette live-trapped eight badgers in the state and fitted them with radio telemetry devices so he could track their movements and locate their dens. After a census, Duquette and Gehrt estimated up to 10 badgers call Ottawa County home. Apparently, though, badgers are fond of Lucas, Fulton and Williams counties, which the researchers believe have up to 30 badgers each. Photos also have been taken of a badger in Crawford County. Gehrt said badgers are a grassland species and are often found near railroad right-of-ways, the edges of croplands and highway easements and near wooded streams. He also said they're grumpy. "They're pretty much irritable all the time," he said. "But I still like them." Gehrt said badgers are very capable of defending themselves and aren't afraid of many things, including people. They're fairly aloof and do not frighten easily. "They're pretty oblivious to what's going on around them unless it's right in front of them," he said. "When I was growing up in North Dakota we used to play a game called 'Who can touch the badger.' " In that game, Gehrt said, he and friends would run up to a badger and touch it. "I think they're cool," he said.