From CBC
An enterprising pair of badgers caught burying calf carcasses in the desert may help repair the animals' reputation as pests.http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/badger-buries-cow-research-1.4049432University of Utah biologists were observing scavenger behaviour in Utah's Great Basin Desert when they first witnessed an American badger do something no scientist had recorded before — completely bury an animal three to four times its size to feast on later.
But doctoral candidate Evan Buechley, lead researcher of a paper published Friday in the journal Western North American Naturalist, didn't actually set out to make a discovery about badgers.
In an interview with CBC News, Buechley said he planned "to study what different scavengers are in the community and how they contribute to nutrient cycling and decomposition."
He did this by staking the carcasses of seven calves to the ground and setting up cameras to capture what happened next. The stakes were used to prevent coyotes from carting the carcasses away and out of the view of the cameras.
But when Buechley returned two weeks later, one of the carcasses was missing.
"I was kind of disappointed because [setting them up] was a lot of work and then the carcass was gone so soon," he said.
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