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Sett disturbance on badger numbers
Journal
Biological Conservation
-
Volume 119, Issue 4
,
October 2004,
Pages 455-462
Authors
Linda Sadlier and Ian Montgomery from Queen's
University Belfast
Abstract
Considerable increases in badger Meles meles numbers have been reported from
long-term studies on local populations and national surveys in Britain. One
theory proposed to explain this population change, is that increased protective
legislation has led to reduced levels of persecution, allowing the population to
expand. In the present study, we show that the badger population in Northern
Ireland has not increased in parallel with the British population, and
investigate whether sustained high persecution levels are responsible. As legal
protection of badgers in Northern Ireland was not increased at the same time as
in Britain, a simultaneous decrease in persecution would not be expected. We
test two hypotheses: (i) where there is no change in the level of sett
disturbance, the number of social groups will remain unchanged and, (ii) if sett
disturbance affects group size, those groups suffering from most disturbance
will be smallest. We demonstrate that badger sett disturbance affects both
social group size and the number of social groups, thus influencing overall
badger density. We also show that high levels of sett disturbance are
constraining the growth of the Northern Ireland badger population and discuss
what lies behind the apparent failure of the protective legislation in this
country.
Keywords
Eurasian badger; Meles meles; Persecution; Badger
sett; Legislation
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