American badgers are built for digging, with powerful front claws that let them excavate a ground squirrel burrow faster than the squirrel can escape, and Montana’s open prairie and grassland around Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the Missouri River corridor give this species exactly the loose, diggable soil and rodent prey it depends on.
Records build through late spring to a July peak, more than 30 times the March low, tracking the stretch when badgers are most active hunting ground squirrels and ground-nesting prey above the surface. NatureServe rates the species S4, apparently secure, in Montana, and the sharp winter drop-off likely reflects reduced surface activity rather than the badger truly disappearing, since it can spend long stretches of cold weather denned up rather than fully hibernating.
