The diet of the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) in the Republic of Ireland Gráinne Cleary, Nicola Marples, Leigh Corner & James O’Keefe
Mar 30, 2015
The diet of the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) in the Republic of Ireland
Gráinne Cleary, Nicola Marples, Leigh
Corner & James O’Keefe
Why this is new
• First Republic of Ireland sample
• Results will help with BCG vaccine program
• Large sample size based on stomachs
• Badgers in Ireland have narrow niche breadths
Dietary Niche Breadth BS = (B-1) / (n-1)
Specialist
Generalist
0
1
Section 1The diet during each season is examined
followed by the dietary niche breadth
Spring Summer
Autumn Winter
Section 2
Feeding trails on captive badgers to estimate
- passage rate
- assimilation efficiency
Results help to understand foraging strategy which may be related to dietary niche breadth
Section 3
Summary of results
Section 1
What do badgers eat?
Spring
Dietary niche breadth = 0.23
Specialist
Generalist
0
1
Summer
Dietary niche breadth = 0.40
Specialist
Generalist
0
1
Autumn
Dietary niche breadth = 0.26
Specialist
Generalist
0
1
Winter
Dietary niche breadth = 0.44
Specialist
Generalist
0
1
To sum up…
Seasonally, the diet is dominated by a couple of food items and therefore the badgers have a narrow niche breadth
Spring Tipulid Larvae BS = 0.23
Summer Frogs BS = 0.40 Bees & Wasps
Autumn Noctuid Larvae BS = 0.26
Winter Noctuid Larvae BS = 0.44 Frogs
Section 2
Feeding trails
Why does the badger have such a narrow dietary niche breadth?
Food items passed rapidly through the gastrointestinal tract
– After 7 hours only one badger’s stomach still had traces of food
– After 16 hours the colon only had traces of selected food items
Results showed that…
Stomach and faecal samples suggest that during periods of prey abundance badgers gorge.
Therefore food passes rapidly through the gut resulting in low assimilation efficiency and food wastage.
Combined with results from dietary analysis…
Other mustelids also have low assimilation efficiency
• Mink (Mustela vision) – Errington (1967)
• North American Badger (Taxidea taxus) – Harlow (1981)
• Weasel (Mustela nivalis) – Moors (1977)
• Wolverine (Gulo gulo) – Farrell and Wood (1968)
• Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) – Iversen (1972)
Why does the badger have such a narrow dietary niche breadth?
Species with low absorption efficiency may eat fewer food items = narrow niche breadth
Species with high absorption efficiency eat more prey types = broader niche breadth
Section 3
To Sum Up,
We tentatively suggest that…
Due to low assimilation efficiency badgers have a narrow dietary niche
breadth composed of high-quality foods
Low ingested biomass of earthworms compared to UK
This could be due to insect larvae having a higher engery
content
Huge intake of vegetation may be involved in slowing down passage
time through the gut?
Could this result in higher assimilation efficiency?
Acknowledgements
• Mr. Bill Coleman • Dept of Agriculture &
Food• Dr. Ursula Fogarty• Staff at IEC• Staff at Abbotstown farm• Ms. Alison Boyce• Mr. Peter Stafford• Ms. Lynsey Stuart
Lynsey Stuart