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Social organisation

Most badgers in Britain live socially in groups or clans consisting of several adult badgers and their young. Typically, each clan is headed by a dominant male (boar) and female (sow). These animals command the use of the best sleeping chambers in the sett, and the best foraging areas in the clan's range.

Fighting within a clan can occur. In my experience, this happens most often when the number of badgers in the clan increases or the food supplies in the clan's range decrease. The younger, subordinate animals may then be forced to leave their clan's territory and go off in search of pastures new. If they don't, they run the risk of receiving severe injuries in further fights. Severe bite wounds to the rump often result from such battles (see cartoon).

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Home ranges

Each badger clan occupies a home range within which there will be one or more badger setts and various feeding grounds, linked by badger pathways. Living in a fixed home range has many advantages. The occupants of a range get to know where particular food supplies are likely to be found and so waste less energy when foraging. They also know where to run in times of danger.

The size of a clan's range varies depending on food supplies. The foods eaten by badgers tend to occur in 'patches', being available at various specific places and at various times. A range must contain sufficient 'food patches' to ensure that the badger can find enough food all year round. In areas with high concentrations of reliable food patches, ranges may be relatively small, but as food patches become more sparsely distributed, poorer in quality and less reliable, range sizes need to be larger. Examples of range sizes have been given by Ernest Neal and Chris Cheeseman. At Woodchester Park in Gloucestershire, where the rich pasture land provides regular and ample food supplies, ranges average 30 hectares in size, and some are as small as 15 hectares. Elsewhere, in parts of Avon and Cornwall ranges have been found to average 74 hectares. In 4 areas of Scotland studied by Hans Kruuk, ranges averaged 183 hectares.

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Territories

A clan's range may be defended as a territory. The dominant badgers may ward off intruders of their own sex from neighbouring clans. In particular, dominant boars have been known to patrol their clans' home ranges regularly during the main breeding season (around February - March time), and mark the borders with dung deposited in boundary latrines. If a boar from another clan is encountered, this can result in a fierce fight.

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References

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Picture credits

The Eurasian badger photo used at the head of this Article is © Steve Jackson. Credits for the photos used in the right-hand margin of this page for site navigation can be found on the Credits page.

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