Impacts of removing badgers on localised counts of hedgehogs

Iain D Trewby; Richard Young; Robbie A McDonald; Gavin J Wilson; John Davison; Neil Walker; Andrew Robertson; C Patrick Doncaster; Richard J Delahay

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095477

Impacts of removing badgers on localised counts of hedgehogs

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 15;9(4):e95477. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095477. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Iain D Trewby¹, Richard Young², Robbie A McDonald³, Gavin J Wilson¹, John Davison⁴, Neil Walker¹, Andrew Robertson³, C Patrick Doncaster⁵, Richard J Delahay¹

Affiliations

¹ National Wildlife Management Centre, Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, Addlestone, United Kingdom.
² Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Les Augrès Manor Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom.
³ Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
⁴ Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
⁵ Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Experimental evidence of the interactions among mammalian predators that eat or compete with one another is rare, due to the ethical and logistical challenges of managing wild populations in a controlled and replicated way. Here, we report on the opportunistic use of a replicated and controlled culling experiment (the Randomised Badger Culling Trial) to investigate the relationship between two sympatric predators: European badgers Meles meles and western European hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. In areas of preferred habitat (amenity grassland), counts of hedgehogs more than doubled over a 5-year period from the start of badger culling (from 0.9 ha-1 pre-cull to 2.4 ha-1 post-cull), whereas hedgehog counts did not change where there was no badger culling (0.3-0.3 hedgehogs ha-1). This trial provides experimental evidence for mesopredator release as an outcome of management of a top predator.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Grassland
Hedgehogs*
Mustelidae*
Population Density
Predatory Behavior*

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the United Kingdom Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (http://www.defra.gov.uk). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.