A ground squirrel facing a badger goes up and out; one facing a coyote goes down. Observers on North American grasslands have recorded the two predators hunting in loose association, travelling together and working the same burrow systems, sometimes over hours. Studies of these associations have found coyotes hunting with badgers capturing more ground squirrels than coyotes hunting alone.
The relationship is not a partnership in any intentional sense, and there is no evidence of shared kills. Each animal simply does better because the other removes an escape option. Coyotes have been seen initiating contact, and the association appears more common where ground squirrels are abundant and in seasons when squirrels are active above ground.
The badger's contribution to prairie ecology extends well beyond this. Its excavations aerate and turn soil, and abandoned badger burrows are used by burrowing owls, snakes, foxes and other species that cannot dig on that scale themselves. What has not been well quantified is the benefit to the badger from the coyote association; the gain to the coyote is better documented than the gain to its digging companion.