Badger Engineering

[ysabetwordsmith]

 For the first time, a badger has been filmed burying an animal larger than itself.  A cow.  \o/

Comments

[kengr]

So where are the mushrooms and snakes? :-)

[redsixwing]

>>Then it built a den next to the carcass, and spent eleven days below ground without resurfacing, while presumably eating a lot of beef.

... I know that feel. *lol*

Now, I wonder if some small badger-analogous creature was doing this to dinosaurs...

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That sounds like a logical possibility. Certainly there were many small-to-medium mammals underfoot. Scavengers are successful, so some of those mammals would have eaten whatever they could get. Stashing a dinosaur would have worked. It would also increase the chance of fossilization.

Now I am wondering if anyone has discovered this but not recognized it as such. It might be discernible through patterns of teeth marks on bones and/or tunnel marks left in the surrounding rock/mud. Some paleontologist could have a grand old time pursuing that hypothesis through museums and fossil beds.

[zesty_pinto]

I remember reading about this and it made me wonder how many other scavengers did things like this at lucky opportunities. Can you imagine the lucky rodent that managed to find a woolly mammoth carcass and maybe lived in the giant meat house if it was freezing weather?

[blackmare]

That is really amazing. Thank you for the link!