The status of the Badger (Meles meles) in Britain, with particular reference to East Anglia

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T H E STATUS OF T H E BADGER (MELES MELES) IN BRITAIN, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO EAST ANGLIA

STEPHEN HARRIS Summary A survey in the 1980s showed that there are about 42,000 badger social groups in mainland Britain. Long-term capture-mark-recapture and postmortem data were used to estimate the recruitment and annual mortality rates for the British badger population; these were found to be roughly in balance. However, the effects of current landscape changes on the rate of sett losses are unknown for most parts of Britain. The exception is Essex, where 36% of all known setts were destroyed in the 20 years up to the mid-1980s, mainly due to agricultural improvements. The data from the national survey were also used to calculate past changes in badger populations. Last Century about 1450 badger social groups were exterminated in Norfolk and Suffolk by gamekeepers, and the current low numbers in these two counties (approximately 150 social groups) are due to past persecution and not an absence of suitable habitats. For Britain as a whole, the badger population could be 39% higher if simple measures were taken to increase habitat diversity. It is suggested that reintroductions are a potentially valuable means of helping rebuild the badger population in Norfolk and Suffolk. Introduction Monitoring population changes for most species of mammal is very difficult, except on a local scale, and there are few reliable national population estimates. The exceptions are species such as grey (Halichoerus grypus) and common (Phoca vitulina) seals, which can be counted from aerial photographs (Summers, 1979; Harwood & Hiby, 1984), and some of the rarer species of bat, such as the greater horseshoe (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) (Ransome, 1991). For nocturnal elusive species such as the badger (Meies meles), it is particularly difficult to obtain reliable estimates of numbers, and until recently there was no information on the size of the British badger population, any past population changes and current population trends, or any measure of the potential impact of persecution or land-use changes on badger numbers. In this paper, I describe a method of measuring the size of the British badger population, and show how these data were used to quantify the population pressures facing badgers in Britain. Calculating the number of badger social groups in Britain There have been two national badger surveys in Britain. The first was instigated by the Mammal Society in 1963 with the aim of recording the numbers and distribution of badger setts on a county by county basis, using volunteer recorders. This was a very successful exercise; over 4300 setts were

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 29 (1993)


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The status of the Badger (Meles meles) in Britain, with particular reference to East Anglia by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu