How a wildlife researcher is estimating Albuquerque's badger population
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) — A wildlife researcher is taking a look at how many American badgers are taking up shop in a 12-mile stretch of the Rio Grande Bosque. To make that happen, she's asking the people of Albuquerque to send any photos they have of badgers, specifically with their head stripes showing.
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Ann Hunkins is a certified animal tracker and master's student at Prescott College. This badger research project was partly inspired by just how many badger digs Hunkins has been seeing in the bosque. Those digs posed the question – is there one overly-ambitious badger, or are there more like a dozen? 'So I'm working with the City of Albuquerque Open Space with this, and the idea is that it's going to help to inform land management decisions to know how many badgers are there, how they're using the land,' said Hunkins. 'Because we've also got a whole bunch of volunteers out there who are surveying the badger digs and uploading them into a monitoring app.'
The study is limited to a 12-mile stretch of the Bosque from Alameda to Ceaser Chavez on the east side. Hunkins says trying to measure the entire greater Albuquerque area could lead to spotty results. The study is particularly trying to measure the 'range' of the badgers found in the bosque, meaning how far the animals are traveling. 'There was a badger digging at The Jackalope in the middle of town and badgers up on the Tramway, badgers in different parts of the city,' said Hunkins. 'So that's part of the study too, to try to find out where, how far the badgers are penetrating in the city.' She says badger range in general can vary from 25 square kilometers to 200 square kilometers.
To the untrained eye, badger digs may look like coyote tracks, Hunkins explains. The difference is that badger digs are a little smaller and they're very asymmetrical, almost 'pigeon-toed.' They will usually show five toes on each foot, opposed to the four toes on coyote tracks.
You can identify a badger based on its head stripe in the same way you can identify a person based off their fingerprint, making it crucial that submitted photos show off the badger's stripes. 'That was one of the things that got me on board to do the study. I was like, 'oh, so we can do it with camera tracking then,'' said Hunkins. 'We don't have to actually trap the badgers. We just need pictures of them… When we get those pictures, and then if we can match them with pictures from other cameras at other times, it just gives us a whole picture of what badgers are doing in the Bosque and in the whole city.'
Badgers play a role in controlling rodent and insect populations. Hunkins say her team has been seeing 'shallow foraging digs,' where they're digging up insect groves beneath Cottonwood trees. They believe the badgers are going after the cottonwood leaf beetle groves under those trees.
Badgers also tend to go after squirrels and gophers. 'I had a man tell me that he had a badger move into his backyard, and like two days later, all the squirrels were gone because the badger had taken care of them,' said Hunkins. 'Now sometimes that can be a problem for people because they'll dig up the entire yard, but usually it's not a problem because they'll just come in, target the species and go. They don't stay very long in any one place. So it's not like they're going to take up residence in your yard for a long period of time.'
In New Mexico, American badgers are not considered an endangered species or a species of concern, although it's a different story in some areas. In British Columbia, American badgers are considered endangered, and over in California, they're considered a species of special concern. Hunkins says the primary threat for them would be the general loss of habitat from human activity, buildings, or roads.
The study will come to a close in August. Hunkins will be analyzing the results throughout autumn. Photos of badgers can be submitted to abqbadgerphotos@gmail.com.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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