Campaign launches to protect endangered badgers being killed on roads in B.C.'s Interior

B.C. residents are being asked to report badger sightings as part of a new campaign aimed at protecting the elusive American badger.

The summer months can be some of the most deadly for American badgers, which are endangered in B.C., according to Karina Lamy, a carnivore conservation biologist with the provincial government.

The main reason? They get hit by cars while travelling on the road.

"The mortality period for them on the roads … starts June, peaks in July, and then drops off in August," she told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops guest host Doug Herbert. "You might see a female right now with two to three kits, [but] with a mortality rate of up to 80 per cent in some areas, most of the kits might not make it into the fall."

In an effort to reduce the number of badgers killed on B.C.'s roads, the province, in partnership with conservation organizations Badgers in B.C. and the Simpcw Resources Group, has launched the B.C. Badger Connectivity Initiative, which aims to create safer road crossings for badgers by designing new highway infrastructure and building passable culverts at five spots in B.C.'s Interior where badgers are most likely to be killed by road traffic.

In order to get a better idea of where badgers are, the initiative is asking people who see a badger — dead or alive — to report it on the Badgers in B.C. website.

Those reports go into a provincial database that will help the group figure out where infrastructure is needed to help keep badgers safe.

"Sightings from people on the land are one of the most important tools we have," Ceryne Staples, who leads the badger conservation program within Simpcwúl̓ecw, said in a news release.

A badger sighting in B.C. is rare.

"You might ask people in an area where you know there are badgers, and they've never seen one before," Lamy said.

Lamy said up to 245 mature badgers live in the Cariboo, Thompson and Okanagan regions, while there are up to 160 in the Kootenay Boundary region.

They are considered endangered, after years of habitat loss caused by human development, traffic deaths and persecution; badgers were considered an agricultural pest, according to Badgers in B.C.

But American badgers are calm creatures, Lamy said.

"I think they're kind of a surprising animal," she said. "A lot of people will think that the badger is a little bit more, maybe like the African honey badger, that it's like this fierce, feisty animal, and they can be. But in the experiences that I've had with them this spring, they're actually a much calmer, relaxed animal that you'd think even when it's been trapped and it's sitting in the cage trap waiting for you to release it."

Lamy said the group is currently trapping for badgers so researchers can put harnesses on them to track their location to better understand where they are.

They've also put cameras in culverts to monitor passage rates.

"Hopefully, with that information, we can design better roads together with the Ministry of Transportation and our First Nations partners."