Watch a coyote and badger become friends in moment caught on video in California

It turns out a badger and a coyote can be friends.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust, or POST, caught the two heading through a tunnel underneath a highway near Gilroy, California. The video could be the first time this behavior has ever been documented, according to POST.

“Our wildlife cameras spotted a coyote and badger traveling together — the first time this type of behavior has been captured in the San Francisco Bay Area,” POST said on Facebook.

It actually can be very helpful for the two to hunt together, POST said scientists have found.

“When they work together to hunt it makes it a little easier to catch their next meals, prey species like ground squirrels,” Matt Dolkas, content marketing manager for POST, said on its website. “But to see them moving through a small tunnel (or culvert) like this is pretty surprising.”

The adorable video is part of POST’s research to understand how wildlife move across the Santa Cruz Mountains, the agency said. It has more than 50 remote cameras that capture videos.

Badgers have been seen before occasionally, but it’s rare, Dolkas said.

“Since they prefer to spend most of their time underground, we don’t get glimpse of them all that often,” Dolkas wrote. “So, seeing one with a coyote moving through a small space like this is very rare.”

POST is building a data set with the videos to see where wildlife can safely cross roads and find out what areas need to become safer.

“It’s all a part of our work to build a network of protected open space, something we’ve been working on since our founding in 1977,” Dolkas said in the post. “It’s a real treat when we get videos like this – ones that show some personality and remind us of the relationships between these wild animals and how playful they can be.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Watch a coyote and badger become friends in moment caught on video in California."