Yellowstone Badger

Another treat that we had on this years Yellowstone trip was the opportunity to photograph a badger. On Friday evening, as we were heading out of the Lamar Valley, we spotted quite a few cars at a pull out that were accompanied by a number of people with large lenses. It was near to where we had spotted a grizzly on our first day in the park, so we stopped and asked what everyone was looking at. It turned out to be a badger that was digging in the sage.

I found a parking spot and grabbed my camera. We had seen a badger in Yellowstone a few years ago, but it was from a distance as it was running across the Lamar Valley and we were only able to get one distant pic. This time we were able to get fairly close.

The badger was using its long sharp claws to dig under the sage unaware, or if he was aware he did not seem to care, of over 12 photographers slowly creeping towards him. When he finally looked up there was an eruption of shutters going off as everyone took advantage of the opportunity.

All the attention was too much for the badger and he scurried off across the field. It was fun to watch him run, his shape and gait reminded me of a wiener dog and I am not sure what was up with his little puff ball tail.