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MacWhite, T., Maher, P., Mullen, E., Marples, N. and Good, M. (2013) Satellite tracking study of

badgers (Meles meles) to establish normal ranging behaviour prior to a road realignment. Irish

Naturalists’ Journal 32(2): 99-105.

Date of publication: 10 July 2013

THE IRISH NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL Registered Office, Ulster Museum, Belfast BT9 5AB. UK Company No. NI 027133

www.irishnaturalistsjournal.org

98 Irish Naturalists’ Journal Vol. 32 Part 2 Irish Naturalists’ Journal Vol. 32 Part 2 99

Aughlinlig (H37) H8750 Crosshaven (H4) W7961 Maynooth (H19) N9236

Ballineanig, Ballyferriter (H1) Q3504 Derrainey (H9) R7591 Mizen Head (H3) V7323

Ballysallagh Forest (H38) J4577 Distillery Fields, Cork City (H4) W6672

Mount Stewart Estate (H38) J56/J57

Belfast (H39) J36/J37 Doonis Bog (H23) N0953 Murvagh (H34) G8973

Brackagh Moss NNR (H37) J0251 Drumask (H37) H8553 Newtownards (H38) J5075

Brownstown Head (H6) X6298 Dursey Island (H3) V43 Priory Park, Belfast (H39) J3169

Cape Clear Island (H3) V92 Galway’s Bridge, Killarney (H2) V9180

Queen’s Cottage, Killarney (H2) V9181

Caragh Lake (H1) V79 Glen of the Downs (H20) O2511 The Raven (H12) T12

Carrigmore, near Glenealy (H20) T2589

Graig Upper (H5) R6612 Ruskbrooke, Cobh (H5) W7866

Castletroy (H8) R6257 Great Newtown Head (H6) X5698 Sinnottstown (H12) T0418

Clifden (H16) L65 near Greenan (H20) T18 St John’s Point (H35) J76

Clonakilty (H3) W3740 Helen’s Bay (H38) J4582 Tramore sandhills (H6) S6100

Coolcotts (H12) T0221 Killoughter (H20) T3098 Tramore Town (H6) S5701

Copeland Islands (H38) J58 Larchfield House (H38) J3158 Williamstown (H13) S9179

Corlea Trackway (H24) N1062 Letterkenny Town (H35) C1611 Coolcotts (H12) T0221

Cratloe Woods (H9) R4960 Malone Golf Course (H39) J3167

Appendix 1. Vice-counties and approximate Ordnance Survey grid references for localities mentioned in the text. Satellite tracking study of badgers (Meles meles) to establish

normal ranging behaviour prior to a road realignment

*teresa MaCwhite1, Peter Maher1, enda Mullen2, niCola MarPles3, 4 and Margaret good1

1Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Kildare Street, Dublin 22National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht,

7 Ely Place, Dublin 23Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin 2

4Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin 2

Baseline data on ranging behaviour in badgers was obtained using Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking collars on 18 animals. Despite low capture rates, the data demonstrated that these badgers were not disturbed into dispersal by trapping. Many were retrapped frequently, suggesting low stress associated with the trapping process. The badgers had clear territories, but differed markedly in their territory use and ranging behaviour among individuals and at different times of the year. The study represents the preliminary findings of the largest study of badger movements in Ireland to date, and the first to use remote satellite tracking technology.

Keywords: badgers, ranging behaviour, territories, GPS tracking collars, road realignment

*Corresponding author - [email protected]

introduCtion

A major road realignment project in Ireland is planned involving the construction of 16 km of dual carriageway with interchanges at either end, to replace an existing stretch of single lane national primary road. The Environmental Impact Study commissioned in advance of this new road indicated that there were a number of badger setts both in the direct path of the new road and in its vicinity. This road realignment presented an opportunity to observe the effect of major roadworks on the ranging behaviour, movements and health status (including in relation to tuberculosis (TB) infection) of a population of wild Irish badgers (Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758).

Badgers are highly susceptible to TB infection caused by Mycobacterium bovis (Gormley and Costello, 2003), and the disease is endemic within the badger population in Ireland (Corner et al. 2005, O’Connor and O’Malley 1989). The behaviour of the badgers in response to disturbance is of direct importance to the epidemiology of TB infection in badgers and therefore in the cattle on adjacent farms (Martin et al. 1997, Eves 1999, Griffin et al. 2005, Woodroffe et al. 2009). Disturbance of badgers

in Great Britain (GB) has been found to lead to increased levels of TB in cattle, referred to as the perturbation effect (Woodroffe et al. 2009). However, Irish studies have failed to find such an effect in response to culling (Olea-Popelka et al. 2009) although anecdotal evidence suggests that some types of disturbance (e.g. roadworks, clear felling of forests) may lead to changes in badger movements and health status. Compared to badgers in GB, badgers in Ireland have been shown to exist at a lower population density (Sleeman et al. 2009), show different sett usage (Byrne et al. 2012), have a significantly different diet (Cleary et al. 2009) and are genetically distinct (O’Meara et al. 2012). Therefore, it cannot be assumed that Irish badgers will respond to disturbance in a similar manner to those in GB. This study aimed to investigate the effects of road construction on the ranging behaviour and use of territory by the resident badger population and to assess the extent, degree and duration, if any, of population disturbance. The study is being undertaken in three phases: before, during and after road construction. Phase one, which started in April 2010, is reported in this paper and has provided the baseline data for the disturbance study. Phase one aimed to establish the normal ranging behaviour of this population of Irish badgers in the wild. There were approximately 32 badgers in the area (based on analysis of the

WalSh, P.M., naSh, d.W., riPPey, i., rolSton, e. & tyner, a.


capture data using the refined Lincoln-Petersen method) (Chapman 1951). The territories of these badgers had already been established by bait marking (following the procedures in Delahay et al. 2000) during a preliminary study 2008-2009. The study area was approximately 28 km2 (2 800 ha) with a 7 km long stretch of national primary road running through it.

The study of the badgers involved GPS tracking collars (Tellus 1C supplied by Followit, Sweden) to track badger movements using Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) position reporting and constitutes the first use of this method for tracking badgers in either Britain or Ireland. It is a joint venture between Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Methods

Badgers were captured under licences (101/2009 and 04/2010 held by TMW) as required by the Wildlife Act, 1976, in two trapping sessions: April-May 2010 (14 days) and September-October 2010 (13 days) using cage traps (following the methods in Cheeseman and Mallinson 1979) and stopped restraints (Murphy et al. 2009). The stopped restraints conformed to national legislation for humane trapping defined in the Wildlife Act, 1976, Regulations 2003 (S.I. 620 of 2003) and were used at only three setts where no badgers had been caught in cages and where badger activity was evident (six days in May 2010 and four days in October 2010). Captured badgers were anaesthetised, by veterinary surgeons from the DAFM, using ketamine hydrochloride (Narketan 10® or Vetalar®) at 10 mg/kg (1 ml/ 10 kg) and medetomidine (Domitor® or Medetor®) at 0.1 mg/kg (1 ml/ 10 kg) (Mullineaux et al. 2003). This dose was delivered by intramuscular (i/m) injection into the lumbar muscles using a pole syringe. All badgers were identified by an implanted Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchip and a tattoo on first capture. The last 4 digits of the microchip number were tattooed to the right medial thigh (inside hindleg). The tattoo and microchip numbers were used to identify individual animals at subsequent recaptures during the course of the study. From September 2010 onwards, badgers were vaccinated with Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine by i/m injection into the lumbar muscles.

All badgers were weighed, clinically examined for signs of ill-health, external wounds and parasite load. Age was estimated according to their dentition and general appearance. Badgers

were fitted with a collar, described below, if they weighed 8kg or more and had a suitable neck to head ratio (that is, a cranial circumference of at least 1cm more than the neck circumference) to prevent collars slipping off. Badgers recaptured in the same trapping session were identified, recorded and released without anaesthetic. Badgers which were originally collared in the first trapping session and were recaptured in the second usually had their collars replaced, as collar batteries were approaching power out.

The Tellus 1C collar from Followit in Sweden was chosen as the most suitable for the study reported here, although it has now been renamed the Tellus Light collar. The Tellus 1C collars were selected as they were the most welfare-friendly, weighing only 240 g and having the ability to be removed from the badger remotely. Before the collars were deployed on the badgers, they were programmed with three different user defined schedules. The collars have the facility to alternate remotely between these schedules. The schedules used in this study took either four or eight readings per night according to the season. The collars delivered a GPS reading or an attempted GPS reading at programmed times during the night by activating for 90 seconds and linking up with satellites overhead. When eight GPS readings or attempted readings had been recorded in the collar’s memory, the collar sent a text message to Followit in Sweden using whichever mobile phone network gave the strongest signal, which then relayed the information to the authors by e-mail. The e-mails were automatically loaded onto a database and the GPS readings were then plotted on a mapping system developed by the ICON Group Ltd. (www.icon.ie see Fig. 1).

Whilst there are no regulations on the use of tracking collars, wildlife experts agree that a collar should be no more that 3-5% of the animal’s body weight. The Tellus 1C collar weighed just 240 g and the average weight of the captured badgers was 9 384 g - thus the collar was in the region of 2.6% of the average body weight. The collars must rotate freely around the neck once they are fitted and do not appear to impede natural movement (Fig. 2). Recaptured collared badgers were carefully examined when their collars were removed. Such badgers examined to date have shown no adverse effects other than slight wear of the hair under the collar after a year or more (see Fig. 3).

results

The first trapping session took place in the spring of 2010 and covered 10 setts initially. In April 2010, 44 cage traps were set for eight days. Three of the 10 setts, whilst showing signs of badger

Figure 1. Orthophotograph overlaid with GPS positions of 4 different badgers (RY, GE, 31 and one denoted by purple square). Note readings obtained in woodland. Courtesy of ICON Group Ltd. and Bing Maps.

activity, produced no captures so, in order to improve the position, 17 stopped restraints along with 11 cage traps were deployed at these three setts for six days in May 2010. This first trapping session resulted in 49 capture events (48 in cages, one in a stopped restraint) yielding 18 individual badgers, nine males and nine females. Thus the cage trap success rate was one badger capture per 8.7 cage trap days. However, many of the badgers were recaptured on multiple occasions. Eight males (88%) and five females (55%) were

captured more than once resulting in a cage trap success rate of one unique badger per 24.6 cage trap days. At the end of this trapping session, collars had been deployed on 12 suitable badgers, seven males (78%) and five females (55%), covering all 10 setts in the study area.

The second trapping session was carried out in the autumn of 2010 at the same 10 setts as in spring 2010. Thirty-one cage traps were set for 13 days, with 20 stopped restraints deployed for the last four of those days at the same three setts

Figure 2. Male badger after release from a cage trap wearing the Tellus collar.

Figure 3. Adult badger showing damage to the neck pelage after a year of wearing a collar.

MaCWhite, t., Maher, P., Mullen, e., MarPleS, n., 4 & Good, M. Satellite traCkinG Study of BadGerS


as in May 2010. This second trapping session resulted in 33 capture events (32 in cages, one in a stopped restraint) yielding 14 individual badgers, eight males and six females. Four males and four females were recaptures from the first trapping session and six were new badgers (four males and two females). This result gave a cage trap success rate of one badger capture per 12.6 cage trap days. As with the first trapping session, there were many recaptures with four of the males (50%) and five of the females (83%) captured more than once resulting in a cage trap success rate of one unique badger per 28.8 cage trap days. Five of the previously collared badgers (3 males and 2 females) had new replacement collars fitted. In addition, two of the previously captured badgers (1 male and 1 female) were now heavy enough for collars and four of the newly captured badgers (3 males and 1 female) were also deemed suitable for collars. So, at the end of this capture period, in total 18 collars had been fitted to 11 males and 7 females. In addition, six badgers (2 males and 4 females) were unsuitable for collars. See Table 1 for a summary of the numbers of badgers captured and collared.

Re-trapping of badgers was strikingly frequent. There were 36 capture events for the 11 females and 46 capture events for the 13 males with three of the male badgers being caught repeatedly (seven, eight and nine times). In total across the two capture sessions, 72% of the females caught and 83% of the males caught went into the traps more than once. The capture success rate did not drop greatly between the two capture sessions. These observations strongly suggest that the process of capture was not particularly stressful for the animals. Furthermore these observations together with location data received from collared badgers, demonstrated that they did not leave the area in response to being captured. Whilst memory loss arguably could be a side effect of the anaesthetic used (ketamine hydrochloride is a dissociative anaesthetic characterised by analgesia and amnesia according to Katzung 2004, 433-

434), it is unlikely to explain this finding as similar levels of recaptures were also observed following release when no anaesthetic had been used. Despite this apparent lack of fear of the traps, most badgers did eventually learn to avoid them, as recapture events became gradually fewer over the course of the trapping programme.

The collars recorded the badgers’ positions, but only if their ‘view’ of the sky was not obstructed, i.e. the badger was above ground and the sky was not obscured entirely by vegetation. Readings were obtained when the badgers were in woodland (see Fig. 1), but in areas where the vegetation was too thick, contact with satellites may not always have occurred. When 8 readings were stored in the collar, it attempted to log onto the mobile phone network and the collar transmitted its stored GPS readings via text message to a server in Sweden. The collars could store many thousands of readings. In total, 7 600 valid GPS readings were received from the deployed collars by the end of 2010.

Preliminary examination of the data has allowed the normal ranging behaviour of the study group to be examined, and has given new insights into the behaviour of Irish badgers and how they interact with neighbouring groups. Badgers in this study regularly travelled more than 2 km per night and some individuals have travelled over 5.7 km in a night. The area inhabited by the badgers consistently for several months was considered to constitute their territory, and this could be very large – approximately 5.6 km2 (560 ha) in one case, although the average territory size was 1.77 km2 (177 ha). The badgers did travel outside these territories and interacted with badgers from neighbouring territories.

In contrast with GB data (Roper 2010) fighting and aggressive behaviour did not appear to be common and, of the 24 badgers captured so far, five males had scars or evidence of old injuries but none had fresh wounds. Three of the five males had scars around the rump and head but only one had severe scarring. Thus for this

No. captures Cage

No. captures Restraint

Total Individuals Recaptures from 1st session

Net Individuals

Collared Male Female

1st session

48 1 49 18 18 9 male9 female

12 7 5

2nd session

32 1 33 14 8 6 4 male2 female

6 4 2

Totals 80 2 82 24 13 male 11 female

18 11 7

Table 1: Trapping and collaring results for Spring 2010 (1st session) and Autumn 2010 (2nd session).

group, the prevalence of bite wounds amongst males was 23% and the prevalence of severe wounds was just under 8%. None of the females had scars or evidence of old injuries. Two male badgers were also captured at setts outside their usual territories. Neither badger exhibited signs of undue stress: both were asleep in the cage traps when first observed. Subsequent collar data revealed that they had come from neighbouring territories.

Because the study was designed to detect the badgers’ responses to the change in the route of the national primary road, most of the territories in this study were adjacent to the current route of the road. The territories of the badgers which touched the road all used it as a border, demonstrating that the road acted as a barrier to a high degree. However, the GPS readings allowed data to be collected on how often the badgers crossed this major road. The results of this analysis (Table 2) showed that seven out of the twelve badgers whose territories were adjacent to the major road did cross it, but sufficiently infrequently to suggest that they avoided doing so. During this same period, two badgers (which had neither tattoo nor RFID microchip) were picked up as road traffic casualties along this stretch of the national primary road. In contrast, the local and regional roads in the badgers’ territories were crossed at a much higher frequency.

Seasonal variations in the movement patterns of the badgers were clear from the data. Over the winter of 2010-2011, most of the collared badgers underwent a low-activity period ranging from just under a week up to six and a half weeks when they did not emerge above ground long enough to enable successful GPS communication. However, there is some evidence from collar temperature readings that the badgers are not completely inactive during these times.

disCussion

This preliminary data set provides new insights, both into the efficacy of the trapping technique used, and into the ranging behaviour of Irish badgers. It highlights the very high rate of retrapping of both sexes, suggesting that badgers are not particularly distressed by the experience of being caught in a cage trap, with several individuals even showing tendencies to become ‘trap happy’ (Sutherland 1986) and enter traps very regularly. There was no evidence of any perturbation effect (Woodroffe et al. 2009) in response to trapping, with animals remaining in the territory in which they were caught with the exception of the two male badgers that were subsequently found to be visiting from neighbouring territories.

The GPS readings for the badgers showed they had clear areas which they frequented consistently over several months at a time, which is consistent with the definition for territories as identified by bait marking studies (Roper 2010). However, the badgers often went into neighbouring territories frequented by other badgers, or further afield into more distant occupied territories. In the light of this movement it is surprising that they showed so little sign of bite marking, suggesting that the territory owners were more tolerant of such incursions than is reported in GB (Kruuk 1978, Christian 1995). All the territories which touched the national primary road used it as a boundary, and although the badgers did cross the road as indicated in Table 2, they did not do so as often as would be expected if it was not considered a barrier. Road traffic deaths of badgers were observed on this major road during the period of the study, so it appears from the data that this road constituted a hazard for the badgers, and that they treated it as such.

Our data clearly demonstrated that different ranges were used at different times of the year and, in common with other studies (e.g. Palphramand et al. 2007), showed that extremely small parts of the summer territory were in use through the winter, with few excursions made outside by certain individuals. However, our data established that there was greater variation in ranging behaviour than the literature would suggest, with some individuals continuing to be active throughout the winter, using nearly the same range as in summer. This variation in behaviour may be a trait restricted to Irish badgers. However it is possible that other studies have not discovered this variation in behaviour even where it is present, since the current understanding of ranging behaviour is based largely on radio-tracking studies which necessarily involve fewer individual animals and so may not detect the full variation present in the population.

Badger No. nights badger crossed major road

No. nights of readings

% nights badger crossed major road

Yvonne 3 52 5.8

Ronnie 1 30 3.3

Carla 3 130 2.3

George 3 169 1.8

Ronan 2 148 1.4

Dolly 2 214 0.9

Sheila 1 174 0.6

Table 2: The number of nights on which badgers crossed the national primary road the number of nights for which they recorded data, and the percentage of nights in which they crossed the road.



The road realignment is due to begin in late 2012, so phase one of this study continues to provide baseline data. Trapping recommenced in April 2011 targeting some of the badgers in the study group that have been collared for longer (to replace their collars) and adding six new badgers.

aCknowledgeMents

We are grateful to Mark Foley (DAFM) for invaluable assistance with field work, to Denis Foley (Farm Relief Services) for baiting, setting and checking the cage traps and restraints, and to James Delaney for assistance with data collection and analysis. We are also very grateful to the landowners who allowed us access to the study area, to Tom McHugh (ICON Group Ltd.) for his tireless work on the Badgertrack website and to David Begg for his helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Martin, S.W., Eves, J.A., Dolan, L.A., Hammond, R.F., Griffin, J.M., Collins, J.D., Shoukri, M.M. (1997). The association between the bovine tuberculosis status of herds in the East Offaly Project Area, and the distance to badger setts, 1988-1993. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 31: 113-125.

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The road realignment is due to begin in late 2012, so phase one of this study continues to provide baseline data. Trapping recommenced in April 2011 targeting some of the badgers in the study group that have been collared for longer (to replace their collars) and adding six new badgers.

aCknowledgeMents

We are grateful to Mark Foley (DAFM) for invaluable assistance with field work, to Denis Foley (Farm Relief Services) for baiting, setting and checking the cage traps and restraints, and to James Delaney for assistance with data collection and analysis. We are also very grateful to the landowners who allowed us access to the study area, to Tom McHugh (ICON Group Ltd.) for his tireless work on the Badgertrack website and to David Begg for his helpful comments on the manuscript.

referenCes

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