Text by Barbara Macfarlane, PhD Student
The following camera-trap footage was gathered as part of ongoing PhD research by Barbara Macfarlane into current guidance on ecological surveying and mitigation against development impacts for the Eurasian badger Meles meles in the UK. It is hoped that the results of the research will help to develop evidence-based guidelines in relation to this species. The research is using novel approaches, including distinct camera trap protocols and CCTV, to address knowledge gaps in the evidence base for identifying setts, estimating territories and boundaries and the effectiveness of mitigation measures when badgers are disturbed for development.
Some videos are embedded below, or else many of the behaviors can be viewed in a playlist here.
Latrines
Badgers defecate in small depressions on the ground known as dung pits, a collection of which is referred to as a latrine. As well as using these dung pits to eliminate faeces, badgers will deposit secretions from their anal glands, subcaudal glands and interdigital glands as well as urine. Anal secretions are specific to individual animals and will be identifiable to their family group, while subcaudal secretions contain information on sex and even the reproductive status. Secretions may be deposited next to dung pits in an area of exposed ground which has been scratched by the badger with their fore or hind paws.
A few videos filmed at a latrine site are available in a separate playlist here. The latrine site where these badgers were filmed is around 50 m from an active sett and in an urban Local Nature Reserve. Latrines may also be located close to the boundary or the center of their territory or very close to the sett.
Grooming and allogrooming
Camera trapping a badger sett often reveals lots of grooming activity which seems to take place usually when they first emerge for the night or on their return from foraging. Often the entire family group will be seen grooming each other.
Scent-marking and allomarking
Subcaudal glandular allo-marking is an activity among badgers, whereby they mark one another with secretions from their subcaudal gland. Group members will have the same scent as the dominant group male, mixed with their individual scents and sharing of this odour shares information and allows social group identification.
When observing a badger on a camera trap, it can be difficult to distinguish between “dabbing” (when a badger is scent marking with secretions) and urination (which can also be used for scent marking) but when dabbing is done on another badger, it can be positively attributed to their method of scent marking.
Digging
Badgers are somewhat compulsive diggers and use their large and powerful forepaws to excavate their subterranean setts. Setts may have an extensive tunnel and chamber system and huge amounts of soil and rock need to be dug out to accommodate them. Often the first sign that a hole is a sett entrance, will be the heap of freshly excavated spoil mounded in front of it. In these videos, the badgers can be seen widening sett entrances, removing large rocks and bringing out old begging. The result of this digging can also create large and distinctive excavation trenches from the entrance to the sett. Digging takes place all year round but an increase in activity may be seen in Spring before the cubs emerge.
Bringing bedding in
If a camera trap is placed close to a sett entrance, among the most frequently captured footage is that of brining in bedding. They are fastidious in changing their bedding regularly, or on dry days, brining old bedding out of the sett or close to the entrance to “air”. This airing can kill off the numerous pests which may infest the sett. The chambers within the sett will be filled with bedding materials, which will vary according to the habitat in which the sett is located, but most commonly they will use dried grasses, bracken and leaves.
Bedding is brought in backwards and raked into the sett in a bedding ball. The act of raking it in (and out) often leaves tell tale signs of recent activity in the spoil heap and discarded bedding can be visible in the recently excavated soil.
Foraging
Although they are members of the Order Carnivora, badgers are omnivorous or generalist and that their diet can be extremely varied and opportunistic. Although their preferred prey in the UK is usually the earthworm they can be reliant on fruit at certain times of the year and the constituents of their diet vary according to the both the area they inhabit to include mammals, avifauna, invertebrates, fungi and cereals. In urban opportunistic. Although their preferred prey in the UK is usually the earthworm they can be reliant on fruit at certain times of the year and the constituents of their diet vary according to the both the area they inhabit to include mammals, avifauna, invertebrates, fungi and cereals. In urban areas, their diet may be supplemented by humans feeding them in gardens. The badgers in these videos where foraging for peanuts, which were scattered and dug underground in shallow bits to encourage the badgers to come to the camera in order that their numbers be recorded.
When foraging for earthworms, badgers will use their powerful snout to burrow into the ground, creating a distinctive conical shape in the soil which, along with scratch marks used for exposing prey is a good field sign to indicate their presence in the area.
Vocalisation
Most people will never have heard what a badger sounds like and it is one of the treats of watching camera trap footage. They have quite a wide repertoire of vocalisation which ranges from chittering, whickering noises to growls, snarls, snorts and churring (and everything in between!). The wide variety of sounds can be used to communicate calls to cubs or other adults, to display aggression, distress or fear and to attract a mate.
Cubs
Although mating can take place all year round and eggs are fertilised soon after, badgers employ delayed implantation of embryos and cubs are usually born in January, February and even March. They will remain below ground for around eight weeks before emerging above ground in late Spring. Initially they will be brought up to explore the sett entrance, gradually venturing further and exploring around the immediate vicinity of the sett while adults forage. Eventually they will accompany adults on foraging expeditions and by autumn they will already be almost the same size as an adult but their behaviour on camera trap footage can often still distinguish them as juveniles due to their playful nature. Some of this footage shows cubs on their first day above ground, even attempting to gather in leaves as they will have watched the adults doing.
Pat White | Method(Ec)ology 