Anecdotes or Ecological Patterns: Symbiotic Foraging Behaviors in Coyotes and Badgers

ABSTRACT Natural history accounts have long suggested that coyotes ( Canis latrans ) and American badgers ( Taxidea taxus ) cooperatively hunt, yet this behavior has rarely been evaluated at broad spatial scales. We used a 3‐year camera‐trap network spanning western Kansas, USA, to test whether spatial and temporal detection patterns were consistent with coordinated hunting. Because camera traps cannot directly confirm cooperative events, we assessed whether such behavior was common enough to generate non‐random regional co‐detection patterns. We quantified spatial association using a detection‐conditioned co‐detection ratio (CDR), estimated diel activity overlap (Δ 4 ) from kernel density functions, and evaluated short‐term (≤ 30 min) temporal proximity and directional responses using permutation and lag analyses. Coyotes were detected on 72.9% of site‐days and badgers on 31.7%, but both species were detected at the same site on only 4.6% of days, five times less than expected under independence (CDR = 0.20, χ 2 = 2604.3, p < 0.001). Despite reduced same‐site, same‐day co‐detection, diel activity overlap was high (Δ 4 = 0.94). Sequential detections showed no excess proximity or directional bias. Collectively, results indicate limited fine‐scale spatiotemporal overlap rather than population‐level coordinated hunting.