The two animals seem almost loving, with the badger’s paw planted gently on the owl's head. Unfortunately for the pair, it seems little romance was involved.
The woman who found the pair and posted the pictures, Gunn Lilleholt Bekkvik, believes the badger was taking the dead owl back to her set when she was herself hit by a car.
”My theory is that the badger had the owl with her, and was then hit,” Bekkvik told the local Agderposten newspaper.
Roar Solheim, an owl expert at the nearby Agder Natural History Museum, agreed that this was the most likely explanation.
”The tawny owl was probably road kill. The badger probably wanted it, and then the badger was also hit.”
Solheim, who is coincidentally presently curating an exhibition dedicated to owls, has asked Bekkvik to bring him the two carcasses so he can investigate the matter further.
Please whitelist us to continue reading.