Scientists at the University of Utah thought they were cataloguing the activity of typical scavengers when they scattered seven cow carcasses across the Grassy Mountains of Utah. What they didn’t expect was to capture incredible footage of a badger behaving a way scientists had never seen before, burying an entire carcass for consumption later.

The remarkable time-lapse video, which you can watch at the bottom of this post, shows the badger spending many hours burying the whole cow carcass, which was three times its size, by burrowing tunnels underneath it until they collapsed, and then covering it in dirt. And despite the fact that the badger is a nocturnal animal, it did much of its work in the daylight, according to a statement from the university.

Scientists had placed cameras to watch the carcasses, expecting to see videos of vultures, coyotes, and maybe even an eagle or two. When one of the carcasses disappeared, they were disappointed, expecting that something had dragged it off and they simply lost it. But then they noticed something strange about the ground, and checked the footage.