WildCRU's badgers in Wytham Woods, Oxford

Badger Ecology and Behaviour

Badgers exhibit a unique pattern of sociality; they live together in groups, but do not display co-operative behaviour. Much of our knowledge of badger social organization has been discovered through this project, but a great deal remains unknown. Badgers are extremely popular and yet controversial animals in the UK. They were afforded legal protection in the 1970’s to deter illegal persecution through badger digging and baiting. Badgers are not, however, endangered, and may be responsible for millions of pounds of damage to buildings, farm equipment and crops annually. In addition, they have been, and continue to be, subject to widespread culling as part of the government’s policy to control bovine tuberculosis among cattle, although their role in disease transmission remains uncertain. Badgers’ unique biology and practical issues together create the imperative to further understand their ecology and behaviour.
 

Why is this project important?
We have studied badgers in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, since 1973. The resulting dataset is possibly the most detailed and complete for any carnivore population in the world. Wytham is a very important site, having the greatest density of badgers ever recorded, rising through the 1990s from 10 to 38 adults per square km. Our study has shown that badgers have an intriguing social system that defies conventional explanation. Most carnivores are solitary, and those that do live together in groups generally display complex co-operative behaviour. Badgers, however, live in groups but do not collaborate in feeding or in defending their territory. Instead their grouping hinges on the distribution of their food - primarily earthworms in the UK. We have also discovered that badger survival and cub productivity may be affected by climate change. Badgers attract very polarised views. On one hand, they are familiar, popular animals, featured in the logo of our wildlife trusts. On the other, they cause millions of pounds worth of crop (and other) damage each year, and are implicated in the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) to cattle, the latter resulting in an experimental badger culling campaign by the government. Since the Wytham badger population is not subject to perturbation through culling, it makes an excellent comparative model for study populations that have been disturbed
 

What are we doing?
We have live-trapped, marked and monitored the entire study population regularly since 1973. From 1987, we have also been able to observe individual badger life-histories and behaviour, using a combination of a live-capture-release programme, radio-tracking and video surveillance. This core study has also been complemented by experimental work on non-lethal methods of badger control.
 

How is this project making a difference?
We regularly produce peer-reviewed publications on fundamental aspects of badger biology, and our undisturbed, high-density population provides an ideal source of baseline information for comparison with other populations. Badgers remain extremely popular with the public, and WildCRU provides guidance and information about badgers to hundreds of people each year; over 6,000 people have been badger watching in Wytham over the last decade.

Cascade effects
Comparisons between the behaviour and ecology of Wytham’s undisturbed badgers and badgers in bTB control areas contributes to government policy on badger management. The detailed nature of the study has also provided unique insights into the foundations of mammalian sociality, and the continual refinement of our field methods contributes to ever higher standards of animal welfare; a model applicable to all wildlife work.
 

How can you help?
We are indebted to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, which has provided core funding for the project since 1987, and to the Ernest Cook Trust, which has contributed generous financial support. You could help us to continue and expand this flagship project in three main ways.
Firstly, we urgently need an additional quad-bike and trailer to make all aspects of our fieldwork more efficient.
Secondly, we are especially keen to develop the behavioural element of the study, for which we need up to twenty GPS radio-collars, and five remote video systems. New technology can allow us to fit badgers with radio-collars that log the badgers’ exact location while also recording ambient temperature, humidity and even the number of mouthfuls of food the badger chews, as it forages.

David Macdonald with a Wytham badger

Thirdly, our research is particularly labour-intensive, and we would appreciate donations towards the employment of an additional member of staff.

You can find out about the budget for this project by contacting us. See contact details

If you are interested in finding out more about the science involved in this project, we would be happy to send you further information

A BBC report from 2003