Behavioural mechanisms of information transmission and reception by badgers, Meles meles, at latrines

Stewart, Paul D.; Macdonald, David W.; Newman, Chris; Tattersall, F

doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1990

Cited by 47 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Nevertheless, the present study demonstrates proof of principle in the application of combined GPS and accelerometer devices to collect detailed data on the behaviour of free-ranging European badgers, and results agree with previous work, suggesting that woodland is a preferred habitat but pasture is also an important foraging area [41]. Additional behaviours that may be identifiable in badgers by accelerometry include squatmarking and defecation during latrine use from static, postural changes [42,43]. Specific foraging events could also be investigated in more detail (for example, [44,45]) as badgers are known to display a pronounced upward flick of the head when predating earthworms [46].…”

Section: Figure 1 Gps Tracks and Behaviour Of A Free-ranging Adult Fesupporting

confidence: 89%

Behaviour-time budget and functional habitat use of a free-ranging European badger(Meles meles)

et al. 2015

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Background:The European badger (Meles meles) is involved in the maintenance of bovine tuberculosis infection and onward spread to cattle. However, little is known about how transmission occurs. One possible route could be through direct contact between infected badgers and cattle. It is also possible that indirect contact between cattle and infected badger excretory products such as faeces or urine may occur either on pasture or within and around farm buildings. A better understanding of behaviour patterns in wild badgers may help to develop biosecurity measures to minimise direct and indirect contact between badgers and cattle. However, monitoring the behaviour of free-ranging badgers can be logistically challenging and labour intensive due to their nocturnal and semi-fossorial nature. We trialled a GPS and tri-axial accelerometer-equipped collar on a free-ranging badger to assess its potential value to elucidate behaviour-time budgets and functional habitat use. Results: During the recording period between 16:00 and 08:00 on a single night, resting was the most commonly identified behaviour (67.4%) followed by walking (20.9%), snuffling (9.5%) and trotting (2.3%). When examining accelerometer data associated with each GPS fix and habitat type (occurring 2 min 30 s before and after), walking was the most common behaviour in woodland (40.3%) and arable habitats (53.8%), while snuffling was the most common behaviour in pasture (61.9%). Several nocturnal resting periods were also observed. The total distance travelled was 2.28 km. Conclusions:In the present report, we demonstrate proof of principle in the application of a combined GPS and accelerometer device to collect detailed quantitative data on wild badger behaviour. Behaviour-time budgets allow us to investigate how badgers allocate energy to different activities and how this might change with disease status. Such information could be useful in the development of measures to reduce opportunities for onward transmission of bovine tuberculosis from badgers to cattle.

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Section: Figure 1 Gps Tracks and Behaviour Of A Free-ranging Adult Fesupporting

confidence: 89%

Behaviour-time budget and functional habitat use of a free-ranging European badger(Meles meles)

et al. 2015

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“…All badger latrines and most raccoon dog latrines were in forests. Also Ikeda (1984) reported that most raccoon dog latrines were in woodland, and Hutchings et al (2001), Stewart et al (2002) and Delahay et al (2007) found that woodlands were positively selected as latrine sites of badgers. Latrine survey thus reveals well the use of different types of forests but the use of other areas will be underestimated, if the exact latrine sites are used in the analyses.…”

Section: Sources Of Errormentioning

confidence: 96%

Does a non-invasive method – latrine surveys – reveal habitat preferences of raccoon dogs and badgers?

Kauhala¹,

Salonen²

2012

Mammalian Biology

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a b s t r a c tWe aimed to examine whether habitat preferences of raccoon dogs Nyctereutes procyonoides and badgers Meles meles can be revealed by using a non-invasive method, latrine surveys. We searched for latrines of these carnivores with scat detection dogs in SW Finland. We compared the results of latrine surveys with the results of a radio-tracking study conducted simultaneously in the same area. Our results showed that latrine surveys and radio-tracking gave fairly similar results: both methods revealed that raccoon dogs favoured deciduous forests, open woodland and reed beds but avoided fields, and badgers favoured deciduous and pine forests but avoided fields, gardens and reed beds. Latrines of both species were often located in the core areas but also along home range borders. Latrine survey revealed possible competition for space between the native badgers and alien raccoon dogs. Latrine survey is a non-invasive method, which gives accurate location points of animals. It could be developed further by combining it with bait-marking and by training the dogs to show us other signs of animals besides latrines.

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“…However, female badgers may advertise their receptivity widely through scent marking (Stewart et al 2001(Stewart et al , 2002Buesching et al 2002), and are themselves easy to locate during the day at either the main or outlier (smaller setts within the territory) setts of their social group (Roper et al 2001), although they may range widely at night. The general lack of cooperative behav-Volume 81 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY iors among group members (da Silva et al 1994;Woodroffe and Macdonald 2000;Macdonald et al 2002b;Revilla and Palomares 2002;Rogers et al 2003) suggests that it is uncommon for resident males to act cooperatively to evict trespassing males; thus, a single male outsider may manage to mate in neighboring territories (Woodroffe 1993;da Silva et al 1994;Woodroffe et al 1995).…”

Section: Implications For the Reproductive Tactics Of Malesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Receptiveity, Embryonic Diapause, and Superfetation in the European Badger (Meles Meles: Implications for the Reproductive Tactics of Males and Females

Yamaguchi

Dugdale

Macdonald

2006

The Quarterly Review of Biology

117

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Behavioural mechanisms of information transmission and reception by badgers, Meles meles, at latrines

Cited by 47 publications

References 22 publications

Behaviour-time budget and functional habitat use of a free-ranging European badger(Meles meles)

Behaviour-time budget and functional habitat use of a free-ranging European badger(Meles meles)

Does a non-invasive method – latrine surveys – reveal habitat preferences of raccoon dogs and badgers?

Female Receptiveity, Embryonic Diapause, and Superfetation in the European Badger (Meles Meles: Implications for the Reproductive Tactics of Males and Females

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