An American badger in Utah had an 11-day beef feast last fall after burying what appears to be a dead calf. Badgers have been observed burying small animals, which slows decomposition and allows them to be eaten later. This is the first time one burying something so big has been documented.
Source: Quartz, April 3, 2017.
I was really shocked and amazed, and really excited,” Evan Buechley, a doctoral candidate at the University of Utah and co-author of a recent paper describing the event told the Guardian. Ethan Frehner, an undergraduate at the University of Utah and another author on the paper, said in a press release that little is known about badger behavior, since the typically nocturnal animals spend a lot of time underground and are most active at night. He called this badger’s feet “impressive.”
INSIGHTS: Badgers mate in late summer, usually August or September. Embryos of the badger experience an arrest in development that greatly prolongs gestation. The embryo develops for a few days, then lie dormant in the uterus, being implanted in January. Of the total gestation period of 250 days, growth occurs during only 50. Birth is usually in April, or perhaps as late as June at higher altitudes.