Have you seen Ontario's elusive badgers? Researchers want to know
"You never actually see them," said researcher Josh Sayers
Have you ever seen a badger? If you live in Ontario, chances are you probably haven't.
The province is home to less than 200 badgers, but a group of area researchers studying the odd-looking nomadic creatures are recruiting the public to learn more about them.
Josh Sayers, leader of the Ontario Badger Project, describes a badger as having the body shape of a groundhog with the colouration of a raccoon. The animals also look "flattened," Sayers told CBC K-W The Morning Edition's Craig Norris.
"They're flat, wide, low animals a body shape that's very strange", he said.
"My initial reaction was that it looked like a cross between a raccoon and a pancake," he joked about the first time he saw a badger while in Michigan doing research.
With their odd appearance, you'd think they'd be easy to spot, but they're so elusive, Sayers describes them as "ghostlike."
A couple of reasons they're so tricky to locate are that they have a low population density, they're nocturnal and often only stay in one spot for a couple of days, he says.
"Even their physical appearance, they have some distinctive characteristics about them especially if you see them head on," Sayers said. "But if you only get a fleeting look of one from the back side there's really not a whole lot to go on."
Despite the challenges in spotting a badger, Sayers and his colleagues are asking for the public's help with their research.
They want the public to inform the Ontario Badger Project of any recent or past badger sightings, dead or alive and also the location of any badger burrows, which are much easier to spot.
In their constant relocations, badgers can leave hundreds of burrows in their wake, Sayers said. The burrows — about 25 centimetres wide — are often used by foxes or groundhogs after a badger has left.
North American badgers are solitary creatures, unlike European badgers, said Sayers. In the late summer, the badgers start looking for mates, and may travel large distances.
Their territory may be a few hundred square kilometres, and Sayers said he has tracked badgers travelling 14 kilometres in just one night over varied terrain.