Adventure is out there!
Meet the captivating coyote and badger duo that have recently been captured on video by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).
A coyote and a badger use a culvert as a wildlife crossing to pass under a busy California highway together. Coyotes and badgers are known to hunt together.
?Peninsula Open Space Trust pic.twitter.com/oS9BL5JOoK
— Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) February 4, 2020
The video plays out like the beginning of a Disney movie. A playful coyote beckons a timid badger into following it through a mysterious tunnel. Jumping up and down while reassuringly looking at its cohort, the coyote seems to insist that the badger follow it. The badger looks around apprehensively and wanders behind the coyote, who trots into the tunnel.
Could this be the beginning of an epic journey? Or is this video in medias res, and we are witnessing the middle of their adventure?
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The video was posted on Twitter by videographer Russ McSpadden, as well as the Twitter account of POST. It quickly went viral (with over half a million likes!). Surprisingly, POST explains that the duo is actually not so unlikely. Oftentimes, coyotes and badgers will team up for better success in hunting.
Regardless, the pair is an adorable companionship. The behavior they exhibit makes it clear why oftentimes, Disney Imagineers use animals as inspiration for the stories that they tell. At the Animation Experience in Conservation Station at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Cast Members explain how artists will observe the behaviors of animals when characterizing them in animation.
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This begs the question: if the duo we are looking at are hunters, would they be illustrated as the heroes of the story? Or rather, an evil hunting partnership? Maybe someday, Disney will study the partnership of these two animals and animate a story that features the pair.
Want to support the habitat of these cute creatures? POST included a link for donations to the natural lands of the San Francisco Bay Area.