gh_pioneer
05-28-2009, 18:45
I'm hoping someone can help me id an animal i saw on a country road today. Haven't found a picture yet but i'll give the best description i can. I first thought it was a badger but looking at some pics online and my field id guide im not sure thats correct. It was the size of a medium coon. it was trotting like a dog and didnt have the humpd back like a coon. it was blackish brown in color, looked like it had fairly course hair, and had no distinct markings except a very faint white or grey stripe down its nose starting between the eyes. my first thought was a coon but it wasnt running like a coon. then thought it was a small house dog until it looked at me. any ideas? whatever it was ive never seen one like it around here.
duckhunter669
05-28-2009, 19:54
groung hog http://cc.ysu.edu/eohs/who'swho/images/dans%20pics/groundhog.jpg
gh_pioneer
05-30-2009, 11:17
dont think that was it. i've seen plenty of ground hogs. what i saw had a longer thinner snout and was holding its whole body up off the ground. It also trotted like a dog w/ opposite legs working together, unlike a ground hog that sort of bounces or hunches along.
What makes you think you are incorrect?
http://dnr.state.il.us/orc/wildlife/furbearers/badger.htm
Distribution & Abundance
Accounts from early settlers suggest that badgers once were common in the northern three-quarters of Illinois. As people settled in Illinois, the badgers' range was quickly reduced to the northern third of the state. The decline was primarily due to the fact that the settlers were cultivating the prairies where badgers lived and were killing badgers because cattle and horses could injure themselves by stepping in burrows. Badgers nearly disappeared from the state by the late 1800s, but their population eventually began to recover. By the 1950s they had reclaimed all of their former range and had even started dipping into southern Illinois.
Badgers are now found throughout Illinois. They're most common in the northern half of the state and least abundant in the southernmost counties. Some of the highest populations are found in the sand prairies of northwestern and central Illinois.
Maybe it was a badger - would be nice to set a trail cam if you know its area.
