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.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Abstract. Semi-arid woodlands, which are characterised by patchy vegetation interspersed with bare, open areas, are frequently exposed to wildfire. During summer, long dry periods are occasionally interrupted by rainfall events. It is well known that rewetting of dry soil induces a flush of respiration. However, the magnitude of the flush may differ between vegetation patches and open areas because of different organic matter content, which could be further modulated by wildfire. Soils were collected from under trees, under shrubs or in open areas in unburnt and burnt sandy mallee woodland, where part of the woodland experienced a wildfire which destroyed or damaged most of the aboveground plant parts 4 months before sampling. In an incubation experiment, the soils were exposed to two moisture treatments: constantly moist (CM) and drying and rewetting (DRW). In CM, soils were incubated at 80 % of maximum water holding capacity (WHC) for 19 days; in DRW, soils were dried for 4 days, kept dry for another 5 days, then rewetted to 80 % WHC and maintained at this water content until day 19. Soil respiration decreased during drying and was very low in the dry period; rewetting induced a respiration flush. Compared to soil under shrubs and in open areas, cumulative respiration per gram of soil in CM and DRW was greater under trees, but lower when expressed per gram of total organic carbon (TOC). Organic matter content, available P, and microbial biomass C, but not available N, were greater under trees than in open areas. Wild fire decreased the flush of respiration per gram of TOC in the open areas and under shrubs, and reduced TOC and microbial biomass C (MBC) concentrations only under trees, but had little effect on available N and P concentrations. We conclude that the impact of wildfire and DRW events on nutrient cycling differs among vegetation patches of a native semi-arid woodland which is related to organic matter amount and availability.