An endangered badger rushed a Kamloops woman after she spotted it in her yard on May 4, 2023.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Christina Bruno
May 04, 2023 - 4:30 PM
A longtime Kamloops resident had never seen a badger within the city until she found one running straight at her this afternoon.
Christina Bruno was trying to get a better look at the badger when she saw it on her driveway in the Brocklehurst neighbourhood. She went out to the street and started recording the animal just as it began to head her way.
"I've lived here all my life and I've never seen a badger in the city or around here," she said in a written response to iNFOnews.ca.
While it may appear in the video that she is being charged by the badger — an earlier version of this story used that word in the headline — that's not what we see happening, a professional wildlife biologist specializing in badgers has corrected us.
"The video does not show a badger charging the woman," says Stephen Symes. "Instead, it shows typical behaviour of a badger moving and searching for food. Upon seeing the woman, it halts and immediately turns around and runs away."
He said it was particularly important to be accurate because badgers already have an unearned reputation for being aggressive, which he believes has contributed to their decline.
"However, showcasing this amazing encounter and highlighting the issues, as you have, can contribute to a positive public view and impact for this species," he said in an email.
It's not clear whether there's a badger burrow on her property, but it fled the area and she hasn't seen it since.
Badgers have been endangered in B.C. for at least two decades, but they prefer grasslands and silty soil, according to the jeffersonii Badger Recovery Team.
The Badger Recovery Team is a group that works to conserve the small predators in B.C., particularly the jeffersonii subspecies of the American badger found in the province.
READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Endangered badger caught on camera in Kamloops
Bruno said conservation officers would not retrieve the badger but she did report the sighting to the recovery team.
Their range extends across the Southern Interior including the Okanagan, Nicola, Thompson, East Kootenay and Boundary regions, according to the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society. The society estimates there to be only 250 badgers living in the province and up to just 30 in the Okanagan. Urban development and wildfires encroaching on their habitat continue to threaten the badger, but most often they are killed by passing vehicles.
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