Dominant Badgers and Feeding

Journal

Canadian Journal of Zoology, January 2001, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 165-170(6)

Authors

Revilla E. and Palomares F.

Abstract

Differences in key habitat use between dominant and subordinate animals: intraterritorial dominance payoffs in Eurasian badgers?

Group-living territorial animals such as the Eurasian badger face the problem of intragroup competition. Badgers are asymmetric in their access to reproduction (dominant individuals being the ones that reproduce), but little information exists about the extent of intragroup trophic competition.

We studied badgers' use of a key trophic resource (the European rabbit), as well as the use of the habitat where this resource is located (key habitat, Mediterranean scrubland) by a low-density group-living population of badgers in Coto del Rey, Doñana, southwestern Spain. During 1995–1996, there was a 2.2-fold reduction of rabbit density, which was reflected in a significant diminution of rabbit use; despite this, rabbits continued to be the most used trophic resource. Notwithstanding the decrease in rabbit density, subordinate badgers reduced their use of the key habitat, while dominant badgers increased it. These results suggest that in Coto del Rey, badger groups exhibit a fully despotic system, with dominance by some individuals not only in access to reproduction, but also in access to food through unequal use of the key habitat that contains it.

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