An orphaned badger is on the road to recovery after being found in a marmot den following its mother's death.
The young badger, now named Maple, is being rehabilitated at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops after its mother was hit and killed by a vehicle on a busy Naramata residential road, according to a July 4 post from the organization. A biologist found that the mother badger was lactating and searched the area for her young.
The orphaned badger was found hiding in a marmot den. BC Wildlife Park, in its Facebook post, said it took several days, but the badger was safely trapped and brought in to the Fawcett Family Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.
Maple will stay at the centre until she is "healthy, self-sufficient, and ready for release" back into the wild some time in the late summer.
BC Wildlife Park says road mortality is one of the leading threats to badgers in B.C., with some populations experiencing losses of over 70 per cent. The Facebook posts encouraged drivers to slow down and stay alert in wildlife areas to help reduce the deaths.
