The Badger Project

European badgers exhibit a unique pattern of sociality; they live together in groups, but do not display the same sorts of overt co-operative behaviour seen in other social carnivores. Thus, while appearing superficially unsophisticated, this species has proven far more complex as our studies have progressed to reveal a challenging model with which to advance our understanding of natural processes.

Understanding the population dynamics of badgers is not only important with regard to fundamental ecology but also because the mechanisms underlying their population dynamics are directly relevant to a management paradox.
In the UK badgers are both highly protected (Badger Act, 1973; Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981; Protection of Badgers Act, 1992) and symbolic of British wildlife (consider the logo of the regional Wildlife Trusts) but also the object of a succession of major culling campaigns prompted by their involvement in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis in cattle. Their still incompletely resolved role in the epizootiology of bovine TB sharpens the need to understand their behaviour and population dynamics. . These stakes are raised further by recent reports suggesting that badger numbers are on the increase throughout the UK (current estimates suggest a national population of around 350,000) as are incidences of TB breakdowns in the Southwest of the country.
In addition to the badger's ecological and political fortunes it is estimated that, despite protection, up to 10,000 per year may be killed by illegal baiting and digging. These losses are compounded by road traffic accidents (up to 50,000 per year) causing considerable badger mortality and population fragmentation.

It is thus critical to know what makes a badger population 'tick'; what mechanisms govern population regulation and how populations respond to changing conditions?

At Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, we have been studying badgers in great detail since 1987, building on previous work stretching back to the early 1970s. The foundation of our entire suite of projects on badger ecology and behaviour at this site has been our commitment to monitoring every individual in the population from 'womb-to-tomb', providing us with comprehensive data on the entire population.

The dataset resulting from our long-term badger study at Wytham Woods is possibly the most detailed and complete for any carnivore population in the world. 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. We have live-trapped, marked and monitored the entire study population regularly since 1987, building on earlier surveys stretching back to 1973.  Using a combination of a live-capture-release programme, radio-tracking and video surveillance, we are able to monitor badger life-histories and behaviour; to-date we have records for over 1250 individuals on file, amounting to almost 7000 unique trapping events. The study has also underwritten a dozen doctoral theses, making it one of our most academically productive projects at WildCRU.