 |
|
Food for Badgers
| "It was rather like having a baby in the house again. At
first I fed him every three hours, night and day, although I was soon able to
cut out the nightly feeds and, as his tummy grew bigger, give proportionately
more by day. He loved his bottle and would put his two tiny forepaws round the
neck of it as he sucked lustily to the last drop." |
| From Page 19 of Brocky the Badger by Sylvia Shepherd |
|
Academic Note: |
|
Journal of Animal Ecology |
|
Feeding Specialization of the European Badger Meles
meles in Scotland |
|
H. Kruuk and T. Parish © 1981 British Ecological
Society. |
|
Abstract |
|
(1) The food of European badgers Meles meles L. is
described from six areas in Scotland, using faecal analysis. The
estimated relative volume of various foods in the diet is compared with
the frequency of their occurrence. Variation between areas and
differences between seasons are related to food availability, and the
food diversity and variance of different foods with time are presented.
|
|
(2) The dominant food everywhere was earthworms,
Lumbricus terrestris L. and L. rubellus Hoffmeister but their importance
in the diet varied little in time and between areas, and there was no
correlation with availability. Other less important foods included
rabbits, cereals, insects and tubers, and several minor food categories;
they were consumed relative to availability in those cases where this
availability could be measured. |
|
(3) It is suggested that badgers change their
foraging effort to compensate for fluctuations in earthworm
availability, consuming a range of secondary foods opportunistically. |
|
Academic Note: |
|
Food habits and trophic niche overlap of the badger
(Meles meles L.) and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) in a Mediterranean
coastal area. |
|
Ciampalini, B | Lovari, S |
|
Zeitschrift fuer Saeugetierkunde [Z. SAEUGETIERKD.].
Vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 226-234. 1985. |
|
Studied the diets of badgers (Meles meles ) and red
foxes (Vulpes vulpes ) in a coastal area of West-central Italy, using
faecal analysis, throughout a year. Both volume and frequency of
occurrence of different foods were quantified. Arthropods were the
staple of both species in spring and summer whereas fruits were the most
important resource in autumn and winter. The diet overlap of badgers and
foxes proved very extensive, in spite of minor differentiating details.
|
|
|
|
