CONSERVATION STATUS
The European badger (Meles meles) is a medium sized, omnivorous carnivore with robustly muscular forearms, belonging to the weasel family (Mustelidae). Native to Europe and West Asia they are considered least concern because they are widespread and relatively stable in numbers, though their populations fluctuate locally in response to loss of habitat and persecution. The generalist badger provides a model for understanding how threats such as changing landscapes and climate change impact individual life histories, providing insights on how other species may respond to the challenges they face.
WILDCRU APPROACH
WildCRU’s long term badger research has focussed on live capturing of individuals to enable the tracking of life history variables and their behaviour and genetics to understand the complexities of badger society. This understanding has been central in providing insights to the involvement of badgers in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle in the UK.
BADGER RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS
Our long term data reveals that the Wytham badger population is amongst the densest in the world, with around 200-250 adult badgers alive at any one time, producing 20-80 cubs per year
Followed births, deaths and mating patterns of 1823 badgers, with 11,488 capture records, 130 trap-ups, charting life-histories against disease, habitat and weather changes, and food supply variability
A badger genome was created in the Darwin Tree of Life Project using blood samples from three of our study animals, an individual badger plus both of its parents from Wytham Woods
WildCRU has one long-running programme focused on badger research:
Key WildCRU publications relating to badgers:
Adverse weather during in utero development is linked to higher rates of later-life herpesvirus reactivation in adult European badgers, Meles meles
Are badgers ‘Under The Weather’? Direct and indirect impacts of climate variation on European badger (Meles meles) population dynamics
Early-life seasonal, weather and social effects on telomere length in a wild mammal
Links between energy budgets, somatic condition, and life history reveal heterogeneous energy management tactics in a group-living mesocarnivore.
Negative density-dependent parasitism in a group-living carnivore
Adverse weather during in utero development is linked to higher rates of later-life herpesvirus reactivation in adult European badgers, Meles meles
Maternal immune and/or metabolic conditions relating to stress or nutritional status can affect in utero development among offspring with subsequent implications for later-life responses to infections. We used free-ranging European badgers as a host-pathogen model to investigate how prenatal weather conditions affect later-life herpesvirus genital tract reactivation. We applied a sliding window analysis of weather conditions to 164 samples collected in 2018 from 95 individuals born between 2005–2016. We test if the monthly mean and variation in rainfall and temperature experienced by their mother during the 12 months of delayed implantation and gestation prior to parturition subsequently affected individual herpes reactivation rates among these offspring. We identified four influential prenatal seasonal weather windows that corresponded with previously identified critical climatic conditions affecting badger survival, fecundity and body condition. These all occurred during the pre-implantation rather than the post-implantation period. We conclude that environmental cues during the in utero period of delayed implantation may result in changes that affect an individual’s developmental programming against infection or viral reactivation later in life. This illustrates how prenatal adversity caused by environmental factors, such as climate change, can impact wildlife health and population dynamics—an interaction largely overlooked in wildlife management and conservation programmes.