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Impact of human land use patterns and climatic variables on badger (Meles meles) foraging behaviour in Ireland

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Abstract

How anthropogenic and climatic effects impact on species has arisen as one of the most fundamental questions in conservation biology today. We hypothesised that human land use patterns in an agricultural matrix would influence habitat selection in badgers and, further, that seasonal and climatic factors would also have an impact. Here, using both radiotelemetry and direct observations, we clearly define badger foraging ranges and show that at the landscape and home range level, our study badgers selected pasture fields and marginal habitat such as hedgerows, whilst avoiding arable land. Both sexes tended to travel over 2 km/night, with males consistently travelling further than females. We found not only considerable overlap in the foraging and even core ranges of badgers from the same sett, but also surprising foraging range overlap between males of different setts. In terms of the nightly distance travelled during foraging forays, greater arable coverage did not force badgers to travel further, and of the climatic variables examined, only rainfall had a moderate but not significant effect. Our findings suggest a high degree of social fluidity in this study population, which may have consequences for bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) transmission.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the landowners, Teagasc and the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (who provided funding) for their continuous support during fieldwork. A Wolfe assisted in radiotracking. Sincere thanks to SJ Brandl, J Garcia-Molinos and E Salsamendi for assistance with analyses.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All international, national and/or institutional guidelines applicable at the time of the study for the use of animals were followed. All animal procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution for which the studies were conducted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Stephen Elliott, John O’Brien & Thomas J. Hayden

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  1. Stephen Elliott
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  2. John O’Brien
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  3. Thomas J. Hayden
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Correspondence to John O’Brien.

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Communicated by: Jan M. Wójcik

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Elliott, S., O’Brien, J. & Hayden, T.J. Impact of human land use patterns and climatic variables on badger (Meles meles) foraging behaviour in Ireland. Mamm Res 60, 331–342 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0242-0

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