Badger and coyote captured on wildlife research camera in South Bay

GILROY, Calif. - A group of researchers studying an area along Highway 101 around Gilroy where roughly 100 animals have been killed since 2018 while trying to cross busy roads discovered something they believe has never been seen before. 

“We have a relationship between a badger and a coyote and this is the kind of thing we could only dream of. [You'd] never expect when we’re checking the footage, this is what we’re going to see,” said Neal Sharma.

Sharma is a Wildlife Linkage Program Manager with the Peninsula Open Space Trust or POST, a Palo Alto-based non-profit based that pushes for land preservation.

Researchers with the organization posted 50-remote sensor cameras at culverts that were installed to drain water from the road to see how animals are using them to access wildlands. 

One of the cameras captured a coyote and a badger that were apparently on a hunt as they used one of the culverts to get underway a highway near Gilroy.

“There are studies out there and there are Native American accounts of coyotes and badgers hunting together,” said Sharma. “But these two species traveling together through a human-made structure to cross safely under a busy road… to our knowledge, that the first time that’s ever been captured.”

Sharma said the video has already been shared with colleagues around the country who confirm that it is likely the first observation of a coyote and badge using a human-made structure while on a hunt.