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European badger - food specialist or generalist
Journal
Journal of Zoology
Volume 234 Issue 3,Pages437-452 Published Online: 8 Jul 2009
Authors
T. J. Roper1 1 School of Biological Sciences, University
of Sussex, Brighton BNI 9QG, UK
Abstract
Although most authors characterize the badger Meles
meles as an omnivore, the species is sometimes described as a food
specialist and in particular as a specialist predator on earthworms
Lumbricus terrestris. The validity of the 'food specialist' hypothesis is
examined, using data from 11 quantitative studies of badger diet to test
two predictions: 1) any one population of badgers relies to a
disproportionate extent on a single type of food; and 2) consumption of
the predominate food is independent of its availability. As regards the
first prediction, when data on year-round consumption were corrected for
seasonal variation in total intake, no study showed earthworms to comprise
more than 50% of the diet and in three studies they accounted for no more
than 5% of intake. In two studies, fruit comprised more than 50% of the
diet and fruit and insects together accounted for 95–97% of total
consumption. Compared across different studies, consumption of any one
food, including earthworms, varied more or less continuously across a wide
spectrum of values, providing no support for the idea that a given food
can be characterized as being of either major or minor importance. With
respect to the second prediction, there was no evidence that consumption
of either earthworms or any other food was consistently invariant across
seasons; and in any case, the idea that badger diet contains a constant
proportion of any one food does not make functional sense. Taken together
with information about the morphology of the digestive system and a priori
arguments about the conditions in which food specialization is likely to
be adaptive, studies of diet confirm that the badger is best viewed as a
generalist or opportunist feeder.
Keywords
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