Animals living at high population densities commonly experience greater exposure to disease, leading to increased parasite burdens. However, social animals can benefit immunologically and hygienically from cooperation, and individuals may alter their socio-spatial behaviour in response to infection, both of which could counteract density-related increases in exposure. Consequently, the costs and benefits of sociality for disease are often uncertain. Here, we use a long-term study of a wild European badger population (Meles meles) to investigate how within-population variation in host density determines infection with multiple parasites. Four out of five parasite taxa exhibited consistent spatial hotspots of infection, which peaked among badgers living in areas of low local population density. Combined movement, survival, spatial and social network analyses revealed that parasite avoidance was the likely cause of this negative density dependence, with possible roles for localized mortality, encounter-dilution effects, and micronutrient-enhanced immunity. These findings demonstrate that animals can organize their societies in space to minimize parasite infection, with important implications for badger behavioural ecology and for the control of badger-associated diseases.
Keywords: density dependence; disease ecology; parasite avoidance; parasites; wild mammal.