Badgers remain fearless in the face of simulated wolf presence near their setts

• Published in: Ecology and evolution 2024-01, Vol.14 (1), p.e10654-n/a
• Main Authors: Diserens, Tom A., Churski, Marcin, Bubnicki, Jakub W., Zalewski, Andrzej, Brzeziński, Marcin, Kuijper, Dries P. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Badgers; Behavior; Denning behavior; European badger; Forests; fossoriality; grey wolf; Hypotheses; landscape of fear; large carnivore ecology; National parks; perceived risk; playback experiment; Playbacks; Poaching; Predation; Predators; Risk perception; Wolves
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10654

Many mesocarnivores are fossorial and use burrow systems to avoid predators. But fossorial animals cannot stay safely underground forever; they must also risk emerging overground to forage and find mates. To make this trade‐off effectively and maximise their own fitness, it is imperative they assess how risk varies in space and time and adapt their denning behaviour accordingly. We used the badger in Białowieża Forest, Poland, as a model for investigating how the denning behaviour of a fossorial mesocarnivore varies in response to short‐term large carnivore risk. To this end, we experimentally simulated perceived wolf presence outside 10 badger setts using audio playbacks of wolves (their howls). We assayed two behavioural measures of fear: badger emergence time from setts on the day playbacks were broadcast and their presence in setts on the day after. We found that neither badger emergence time nor next‐day sett use varied in response to wolf playbacks. The results of the present study contrast with a previous study of ours that found badgers used setts in areas with high landscape level perceived wolf risk less often than those in lower‐risk areas. Together, these papers' findings suggest that different spatiotemporal scales of perceived risk can have differential effects on badger behaviour. We conclude that rather than take risk avoidance measures at all risky times and places, badgers likely display a diversity of reactions to large carnivore presence that depend on the context and spatiotemporal scale of the risk being perceived. In this study, using a playback experiment, we investigated whether badger denning behaviour varies in response to the presence of wolves at their setts. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found that neither badger emergence time nor next‐day sett use varied with simulated wolf presence. These results contrast with the findings of a previous study of ours, which found that badgers used setts in areas with high landscape level perceived wolf risk less often than those in lower‐risk areas. Taken together, the results of these papers suggest that different spatiotemporal scales of wolf risk can have differential effects on badger behaviour.