Gopherus agassizii (Desert Tortoise) cohabitation with American badger

Abstract

American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) are known predators of juvenile and adult Desert Tortoises as well as their nests (Berry and Duck 2010. Answering Questions About Desert Tortoises: a Guide for People Who Work with the Public. Desert Tortoise Council, Ridgecrest, California. Available online at ). Despite this fact, on 8 August 2011, we observed a badger sharing a caliche cave retreat with an adult male Desert Tortoise in southern Nevada. The badger was seen peering out of the cave before retreating, upon which time some “shuffling” was heard and the tortoise appeared at the cave entrance, apparently unharmed, and proceeded to sit just inside the mouth of the cave. As the tortoise was part of a radio-tracking study, we re- located it a week later and it remained alive and healthy. Though badgers will occasionally kill Desert Tortoises, this observation suggests that they may, at least temporarily, share desert retreat sites with tortoises without antagonistic or predatory behavior. This research is supported by financial assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Desert Tortoise Recovery Office (Reno, Nevada, USA).