A fox and a badger fight in Yellowstone - the whole story

in the spring of 2013 a male and female Fox built a den in an unusual location right above the yellowstone picnic area on the north side of Yellowstone National Park at first no one noticed but on May 23rd two kits emerged and the Foxes suddenly had a big audience of people watching their every move they became instant celebrities and they didn't seem to mind the people a bit humans were an accepted part of their landscape both parents spent a lot of time away from the den hunting especially the male he was an efficient hunter even sagebrush didn't stop him he usually got his prey which was almost always ground squirrels he gave most the ground squirrels to the vixen the vixen gave the kits ground squirrels as she began to wean them the vixen takes a cash squirrel from her kid who wants to play with it the vixen gets another and a tug-of-war ensues the vixen spent most of her time at the den guarding her two tips she was a patient mom even at the most trying of times we watched the kits grow feed and drive their parents crazy for nine days they became a part of our lives we learned to predict their movements and we fell in love with them when an adult was present the kids were out of the den and plane when mom had been gone for a while the babies rushed to nurse when she returned we knew they had enemies the most obvious was a raven mom was on constant lookout for him but he still managed to steal the occasional leftovers we were concerned they would move they're down but we never worried about what actually did happen on the ninth day the unthinkable happened a badger showed up the Vixen fought hard but the Badger actually made it into the den with one of the kids mom was understandably upset at one point the Badger came out but only to fight again and then returned to down through one of their escape holes the Vixen frantically dug vigorously to evict the badger from her den she was not successful the male returned and tried to help but then a kid appeared totally unhurt and wondering what all the fuss was about the kid seemed undisturbed and more interested in the bighorn sheep than the Badger it took us a minute to figure it out we thought the Badger had been down there killing the kid but he had actually been eating their cache of ground squirrels now the kid was safe but the Badger was still in the den and the vixen wanted him out the Badger and the vixen again fought ferociously for the possession of the den Badgers have few enemies since they are so aggressive the vixen had more than met her match especially without the male's help once again the Badger gained possession of the den she spent hours trying to get him out without success sometime that night she dug a new den about 30 yards west of her original down the kids understood they moved to the new den staying in the den while their parents were gone and out playing near it when Mom was home the next day towards mid-afternoon the male left to go hunt while he was out hunting the vixen inexplicably left she knew the Badger was in her original den but she left we had never seen her leave the kits while the Badger was there but she did the kits went into their new down after she left the Badger came out of the original den and sniffed around wary of the vixen feeling safe from the vixen he trailed the kits to the new den old Dan had three exit holes the new den hastily dug only had one when the female returned she immediately realized her kits and the Badger were in the same den addenda the one exit hope we all hope for a second miracle but after a few hours we realized it probably wouldn't happen she tried and tried but she was unable to dislodge the Badger when the vixen brought out the remains of a kid which she carefully buried we knew it was over we had fallen in love with those kids who had willingly given us a glance at their lives several days later the Badger finally left the area the adult foxes sniffed the kitch remains and then walked over the hill together they have returned several times but they don't stay we will never forget them you

Channel: Judy Lehmberg

Views: 3,559,406

Rating: 4.4918323 out of 5

Keywords: foxes and badgers, fox and badger fight, fight in Yellowstone, the fight of her life, Fox (Animal), Badger (Animal), #foxbadgerfight, #Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park, लोमड़ी और बेजर लड़ाई, येलोस्टोन

Id: Wc8tidOjhUY

Length: 5min 44sec (344 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 24 2015