Badger "scared the pants off" Tucson restaurant staff

Employees at a Tucson restaurant were in for a surprise when they found a badger among the beer kegs behind the restaurant. 

A dishwasher at the midtown chain restaurant went behind the restaurant Wednesday morning and the badger "scared the pants off him," said Marc Hammond of Animal Experts, Inc. A chef who also works with wildlife warned his co-workers about the ferocity of badgers and told them to keep their distance. 

Caution was wise, Hammond said of dealing with badgers. "They come right at you." 

The female North American badger was one of only a handful of badgers Hammond has found in Tucson in his 28 years of working with wildlife. Most badgers found locally are in Green Valley, Vail, or other less-urban areas, he said. 

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While raccoons, which Hammond sees frequently this time of year, and coyotes and other species often live in urban areas, badgers prefer to live near their food supply of gophers and ground squirrels, he said. 

But the washes in Tucson can stretch from the mountains into the center of the city, including one wash that goes "all the way to Reid Park without crossing a street," he said. 

The badger likely followed the Alamo wash from the Rincon Mountains into Tucson, Hammond said. He found the badger tucked among the kegs stored behind the restaurant a few feet from a dumpster, which means it likely was looking for food. 

Hammond used a heavy-duty trap and took the badger to the Avra Valley area where he had seen ground squirrels.