An amazing video reveals the showdown between a mother fox protecting her den and cubs from a hungry badger in Yellowstone National Park.
European badgers are effectively best-friends with foxes. Foxes provide food scraps to the badgers, and in return, the badgers keep the shared den clean. How sweet is that? On the other hand, the American badger is evidently not quite as friendly…
The American badger is a fossorial carnivore — meaning that it often catches its prey underground by digging or scouting out dens.
Although foxes are not their main source of prey, they have been known to take a fox cub when given the chance. Badgers are notoriously tough, aggressive, and persistent; getting one to go away is not easy in the slightest.
Red foxes have tightly knit families, with both the males and females exhibiting parental care in the form of acquiring food, as well as defending the den from predators. Even the first-born cubs are known to occasionally help their parents out in the den by caring for newly born cubs.
In this video, whilst a male fox is away from his family, the worst happens: a badger attacks. The female attempts to drive the badger away with tenacity and persistence, but badgers are indeed tough, and it doesn’t quite go to plan for the vixen.