(Image Credit: Cherie Bitz)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

BADGER SIGHTING

VIDEO: Badger digs its way into Brocklehurst garden

May 5, 2020 | 4:36 PM

KAMLOOPS — It appears another critter should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque this week — instead making its way into the garden of a Kamloops resident.

A badger dug its way above ground in the backyard of Cherie Bitz in Brocklehurst yesterday (May 4). Bitz says the unexpected guest left her wondering how and why it arrived in her garden.

“I’ve probably seen a lot of animals, but never a badger. I mean, I’ve seen a beaver in a beaver dam. But certainly not in the middle of Brock,” she says. “I don’t even know how he got here. They say they travel, but I don’t know how he got to my yard in particular.”

After three days of trying to fill in newly dug holes in her garden, Bitz says she knew a critter had found its way into her yard.

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“Honestly I don’t even know what words could express my feeling; I think I was frozen. I mean I obviously knew it wasn’t a scary monster of any sort. I just really had no idea what was going to come out of that hole.”

While the new resident did spark some excitement, Bitz says she figured the urban neighbourhood wasn’t where a badger would normally be found. She first called the City (of Kamloops), and local biologists, before being directed to the Conservation Service.

CFJC Today spoke with Bitz prior to the arrival of conservation officers, and she says they assured her the badger would be in safe hands.

“They’ll make sure he’s safe. I really don’t know if they can catch him, I don’t know what their procedure is. I don’t know if they’re going to dig up my yard,” she chuckles. “They’ve got to figure out if it’s a boy or girl, too. Because if it’s a girl, babies would be nearby. And so I might have a dug-up yard in a few days.”

Not knowing whether the badger was a male or female, Bitz says her daughter opted to name it “Sam” for the time being. They’ve let the badger have its space, but managed to get some cell phone footage of the creature poking its head out of the dirt.

“He’s really big, he isn’t that scary. I guess he can be — there are videos out there showing that they are scary, but so far, so good,” Bitz notes. “He hasn’t tried to come out of the garden at any time over the last week.”

Badgers aren’t an everyday sight in a residential neighbourhood, but according to the B.C Wildlife Park’s Animal Care Manager, Tracy Reynolds, they’re not entirely uncommon in the Kamloops area.

“They hunt a lot of marmots and rodents and they are great diggers, obviously. This one was coming up out of the ground and had been underground for awhile. So it was probably following some kind of a vole or a marmot, or some other rodent that it was hunting.”

Should a badger appear in your yard, experts recommend keeping your distance, and calling a conservation officer, or report the sighting to the B.C badger hotline at 1-888-223-4376.