Thoughts on badgers in the Willamette Valley

[Margaret Stephens]

Attached are photos of a hole and paw prints I noticed in a natural area adjacent to farm land north of Keizer, Oregon.  I have seen badgers close-up at Malheur Field Station HQ but I have never heard that their range includes the WV.  However,  I found some posts in OBOL  a long time ago discussing badgers' range and possible historical presence in the WV,  

A few years ago I was at Baskett Slough, a bit off trail and smelled a decaying animal.  The fur of the remaining carcass looked like badger.  I did not get a photo.  There was a person checking out techniques to control Tall Oat Grass and I asked him to take a look and he seemed to agree it looked like it could have been a badger.

Any ideas about the hole and the paw prints?

[Carma Sue Henry]

Hi Margaret,

I don't know anything about badgers in WV.  However, the third photo shows a print that's very like the front paw of a raccoon.  A few years ago, I was weeding along an embankment area and nearly stepped on a yellow jacket nest -  got away with only one sting.  A couple days later we saw a raccoon eagerly digging down into the ground and throwing up a lot of dirt.  It didn't seem too bothered by all the wasps.  When I checked later, the entire nest was gone and the hole was about a foot across and a foot deep with a debris field much like the one in you photos.  I was able to finish weeding with no worries about more stings.

Carma Henry

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[Don A Boucher]

Hello,

Like Carma said, looks like raccoon tracks to me. Racconns are very capable diggers.

Here are some raccoon track observations in iNaturalist in similar substrates:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/398894918

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/343790288

The nearest badger population is more than 70 miles away on the east side of the Cascades. Not very likely at all. Badger tracks have short heel pads and claw marks that extend further beyond the toe pads.

-Don Boucher

[Margaret Stephens]

Yes, I thought the paw prints looked like raccoon.  I didn't know they dug for wasps that deep.  I was aware of the the badgers' current documented range and that it is highly unlikely to observe one west of the Cascades.  However, perhaps it is not impossible as some speculate that they might have, historically, inhabited the valley.  Here is one post from OBOL in 2014 (Joel) that references badgers (there are other discussions in OBOL on same topic):  " Re: Badgers in Oregon appear to be historically relegated to the Cascades and eastward and most commonly on the east side of the Cascades. Historic and present range are (may be ?) similar. I see no mentions of historic west side interior valley populations (Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue) in the references I've located (including Ingles, Maser, Verts & Carroway, & Vernon Bailey - 1936). I find it somewhat odd that in California, starting in Humboldt County & extending south, Badgers have ranged and currently still range all the way to the coast. https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=83762 True that there is more grassland and other open habitat types in coastal / western CA. But the interior OR valleys and adjacent "foothills" historically had grassland and open habitats that I'd think a Badger could utilize. ??? Perhaps they once were there? "