Badgers: on average, how many per sett in Ireland?

Amtmann

It's something I've always been curious about. I've read several books by the British zoologist Ernest Neal, who was for years before his death the world expert on badgers (Meles meles). In England he often wrote that setts had as many as 8 or more adults, plus at least one and sometimes two litters of cubs. He also pointed out that English setts were often vast and sited in woodland.

Now I've badger-watched in Tipperary for a few years and the most I've ever seen together was two adults (presumably a boar and sow) along with two cubs. Setts in Tipperary at least are usually in hedgerow or old ringforts/mottes and can't really be described as "vast".

So I suppose my question is: do we have less badgers per sett despite having, on the face of it, better earthworm conditions for badgers, and, again on average, are our badger setts smaller than most of their English equivalents?

What was the biggest sett/most badgers within one sett you ever encountered or heard of?

rosiec

"do we have less badgers per sett despite having, on the face of it, better earthworm conditions for badgers and are our badger setts smaller than most of their English equivalents"

in general sett sizes in ireland seem to be smaller than those found in the UK, average of 2-4 animals. This is actually on par with most of europe. Sweden, Italy, Spain would all have small social group sizes. The UK seems to be the odd one out. In places in England (Woodchester park and Wytham Woods) some social groups can contain in excess of 30 badgers.

As for earthworms, a recent study into the diet of irish badgers found that in ireland worms are not a huge part of the diet at all. Badgers eat different things dependent on season, but the main dietary components would be leather jackets (daddylong leg larve), bee/wasps nests, noctuid larve, berries and frogs. Again this wide food variety is common across Europe where they've been known to eat olives, apples, rabbits etc. I'd imagine sett/territory size is smaller in Ireland because food availability is better as they are not specialising on one food source. Being able to eat a variety of different foods reduces the need for the badgers to have huge terrirories just for worms.

Mothman

rosiec wrote: »

noctuid larve,

Noctuidae is a family of moths, and the particular larvae are probably mainly Large Yellow Underwing, an abundant grassland species. There are plenty other species that badgers probably prey upon, but they're generally not as abundant as Large Yellow Underwing.

Amtmann

rosiec wrote: »

I'd imagine sett/territory size is smaller in Ireland because food availability is better as they are not specialising on one food source. Being able to eat a variety of different foods reduces the need for the badgers to have huge terrirories just for worms.

Thanks for that.

I've long suspected our badgers live differently from their British counterparts. I've a slightly different take on the reasons for this, though - I think our setts are smaller because they're almost always located in hedgerow rather than woodland. This limits a) the capacity of the sett for expansion; and b) the extent to which a sett can remain relatively concealed and anonymous. This, in turn, maximises disturbance to setts, as well as makes regular damage to them inevitable. I have no proof of this; it's purely a hunch.

In terms of food, badger droppings in Ireland normally have that muddy brown consistency commonly depicted in the books of Ernest Neal, which suggests a largely earthworm-based diet. I've often watched badgers search for worms, slowly pacing up and down suitable fields at the back of my house. That said, I'd love to read the article you mention. Can you remember who wrote it and what journal it's in?

I think the critical factor is our lack of woodland, which means our setts are more exposed and consequently smaller is size and more prone to damage.

rosiec

Furet wrote: »

In terms of food, badger droppings in Ireland normally have that muddy brown consistency commonly depicted in the books of Ernest Neal, which suggests a largely earthworm-based diet. I've often watched badgers search for worms, slowly pacing up and down suitable fields at the back of my house. That said, I'd love to read the article you mention. Can you remember who wrote it and what journal it's in?
.

Its by a girl called Grainne Cleary, but it hasnt been published yet. Its been submitted to a journal so it should be out soon. She basically studied badger diet for her PhD using both stomach contents and faecial matter. She found that badgers did eat worms but not as much as it had been previously thought, they have a much wider diet in Ireland. She also found that if you compared % of worms found in the stomach and those in the faeces that worms were over-estimated as dietary components if you only looked at the faeces. So as many dietary studies are based on faecial samples its possible that they over-estimate the importance of earthworms to badgers. If you like, you can search google sholar for badger diet and you'll find papers about diet from all over europe, T Roper is a pretty good english researcher to have a look at.

rosiec

Mothman wrote: »

Noctuidae is a family of moths, and the particular larvae are probably mainly Large Yellow Underwing, an abundant grassland species. There are plenty other species that badgers probably prey upon, but they're generally not as abundant as Large Yellow Underwing.

Yep your right, i couldnt remember the species!!