Badger territoriality maintained despite disturbance of major road construction

Abstract

Road ecology has traditionally focused on the impact of in-situ and functional roads on wildlife. However, road construction also poses a major, yet understudied, threat and any implications for key aspects of animal behaviour are unknown. There are concerns that environmental disturbances, including major roadworks, can disrupt badger (Meles meles) territoriality, promoting the spread of tuberculosis to cattle. To address these knowledge gaps, the ranging behaviour of a medium-density Irish badger population was monitored, using GPS-tracking collars, before, during and after a major road realignment project that bisected the study area. We estimated badgers’ home range sizes, nightly distances travelled and the distance and frequency of extra-territorial excursions during each phase of the study and quantified any changes to these parameters. We show that roadworks had a very limited effect on ranging behaviour. A small increase in nightly distance during the roadworks did not translate into an increase in home range size, nor an increase in the distance or frequency of extra-territorial excursions during the roadworks. In addition, suitable mitigation measures to prevent badger deaths appeared to ensure that normal patterns of ranging behaviour continued once the new road was in place. Our analysis supports the view that road construction did not cause badgers to change their ranging behaviour in ways likely to increase the spread of tuberculosis.

European badger (Meles meles) responses to low‐intensity, selective culling: Using mark–recapture and relatedness data to assess social perturbation

“…We find average recapture distances of 671 m; this is comparable to the nightly distance moved (651 m) assessed by trapping in another Irish badger population, which inhabits a very similar, agriculture‐dominated landscape (Gaughran et al., 2021).…”

Habitat availability alters the relative risk of a bovine tuberculosis breakdown in the aftermath of a commercial forest clearfell disturbance

“…Interestingly, while disruptions to wildlife host populations (i.e. badgers) social behaviour were believed to be the cause (Barroso et al, 2022), concurrent research found no changes to wildlife territoriality while subjected to disturbances via road construction (Gaughran et al, 2021). This clearly highlights our poor understanding of the mechanism behind fluctuations in disease risk in disturbed landscapes.…”