In lowland England, badgers Meles meles form social groups of up to 30 individuals. They share a main den (sett) and a core feeding range, but largely forage alone. Faeces are deposited in discrete hinterland and border ‘latrines’. Border latrines are shared with neighbouring groups. We demonstrate that there is a highly significant tendency for neighbouring groups to place a similar quantity of faeces at shared latrines. There are also significant tendencies to place more faeces in boundary latrines close to the sett, and for reduced separation of latrines close to the sett. We also demonstrate that badgers tend to defecate most frequently on the boundary closest to their current feeding site. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that faeces at border latrines are used to promote range exclusion. We propose that faecal volume represents a reliable signal of the encounter likelihood and/or foraging pressure of badgers along a particular border. According to the ‘active territorial defence’ hypothesis, this indicates a stand-off position in terms of each group's resource holding potential by signalling encounter likelihood across the boundary. By the ‘passive range exclusion’ hypothesis, this border is an isopleth (equal contour) of resource depletion between groups, and crossing over such a contour deep into a neighbouring range reduces foraging efficiency. By either hypothesis, the matched faecal volume and sett proximity effects suggest a simple mechanism that is capable of allowing reliable information to be passed by individuals between adjacent sectors of neighbouring territories to deter intrusion. This is a ‘bottom–up’ process of inter-dependent, parallel, individual responses, which is capable of generating the emergent complexity of co-ordinated group ranges without central control.

Due to their apparent intelligence and adaptability, mustelids typically thrive if introduced into new ranges and increasingly they live among us even in urbanized areas (e.g., stone martens (Martes...

Wild-living animals are subject to weather variability that may cause the generation of reactive oxygen species, resulting in oxidative stress and tissue damage, potentially driving demographic responses. Our 3-yr field study investigated the effects of seasonal weather conditions on biomarkers for oxidative stress, oxidative damage, and antioxidant defense in the European badger (Meles meles). We found age class effects: cubs were more susceptible to oxidative stress and oxidative damage than adults, especially very young cubs in the spring, when they also exhibited lower antioxidant biomarkers than adults. Although previous studies have found that intermediate spring and summer rainfall and warmer temperatures favor cub survival, counterintuitively these conditions were associated with more severe oxidative damage. Oxidative damage was high in cubs even when antioxidant biomarkers were high. In contrast, adult responses accorded with previous survival analyses. Wetter spring and summer conditions were associated with higher oxidative damage, but they were also associated with higher antioxidant biomarkers. Autumnal weather did not vary substantially from normative values, and thus effects were muted. Winter carryover effects were partially evident, with drier and milder conditions associated with greater oxidative damage in the following spring but also with higher antioxidant capacity. Plausibly, warmer conditions promoted more badger activity, with associated metabolic costs at a time of year when food supply is limited. Modeling biomarkers against projected climate change scenarios predicted greater future risks of oxidative damage, although not necessarily exceeding antioxidant capacity. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates that individual adaptive physiological responses are associated with variation in natural environmental conditions.

The restraint and sedation of wild animals has welfare implications, thus animal handling procedures should be well-informed and optimised to adhere to welfare standards. Furthermore, it is important that handling procedures should not cause future trap avoidance. This is of particular pertinence to European badgers (Meles meles), subject to extensive cage-trapping, relating to bovine tuberculosis epidemiology. We examined 4,288 capture/recapture events for 856 individual badgers, occurring between May 1999-September 2011, recording initial observed behaviour and reaction provoked by injection, on a scale ranging from still (0) to distressed/aggressive (3). Eighty-seven percent of adults and 76% of cubs were still (0) when approached initially and 75% of adults and 62% of cubs remained still when injected. Cubs exhibited significantly higher behavioural responses than adults, while female adults scored higher provoked scores than males. Importantly, the initial behaviour of an individual dictated its provoked response. Previous experience of capture was associated with lower subsequent behavioural response scores, while naïve badgers were most prone to score highly. Individuals first caught as cubs scored lower initial responses than those first caught as adults. Lower initial responses occurred in spring and summer and higher responses were associated with lice infestation. Behavioural criteria have potential to inform and optimise welfare in badger capture operations. This contributes to techniques allowing simple, non-invasive assessment of how wild animals in general respond to temporary restraint, where the psychological perception acts as the precursor to physiological stress.