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Hedgehogs and badger odour
Journal
Animal
Behaviour, April 1997, vol. 53, no. 4,
pp.
709-720(12)
Authors
WARD J.F.; MACDONALD D.W.;
DONCASTER C.P.
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit,
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
Abstract
Enclosure and field trials were used to investigate the responses
of hedgehogs, Erinaceus europaeus , to predator (badger, Meles meles
) and non-predator odours. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) hedgehogs
are capable of responding to badger odour; and (2) hedgehogs prefer
not to forage in areas tainted with badger odour. In enclosure
trials, hedgehogs almost exclusively avoided feeding at sites
tainted with badger faeces in favour of sites tainted with
non-predator faeces, and continued to avoid the previously
badger-tainted site after 2 days, but not after 4. Field experiments
with free-ranging hedgehogs showed a reduction in foraging effort in
response to badger odour over periods of 5 and 30 min, but no
evidence of site avoidance over a 24-h period. Lack of persistent
avoidance of badger odour in the field was probably due to the costs
of predator avoidance, which were negligible in the enclosure owing
to the presence of an alternative superabundant food
source.
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