The diet of the Eurasian
badger (Meles meles) in
the Republic of Ireland
Gráinne Cleary, Nicola Marples, Leigh
Corner & James O’Keefe
Why this is new
• First Republic of Ireland sample
• Results will help with BCG vaccine
program
• Large sample size based on stomachs
• Badgers in Ireland have narrow niche
breadths
Dietary Niche Breadth
BS = (B-1) / (n-1)
Specialist
0
1
Generalist
Section 1
The diet during each season is examined
followed by the dietary niche breadth
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Section 2
Feeding trails on captive badgers to estimate
- passage rate
- assimilation efficiency
Results help to understand foraging strategy which
may be related to dietary niche breadth
Section 3
Summary of results
Section 1
What do badgers eat?
Spring
Dietary niche breadth = 0.23
Specialist
0
1
Generalist
Summer
Dietary niche breadth = 0.40
Specialist
0
1
Generalist
Autumn
Dietary niche breadth = 0.26
Specialist
0
1
Generalist
Winter
Dietary niche breadth = 0.44
Specialist
0
1
Generalist
To sum up…
Seasonally, the diet is dominated by a couple of
food items and therefore the badgers have a
narrow niche breadth
Spring
Tipulid Larvae
BS = 0.23
Summer
Frogs
Bees & Wasps
BS = 0.40
Autumn
Noctuid Larvae
BS = 0.26
Winter
Noctuid Larvae
Frogs
BS = 0.44
Section 2
Feeding trails
Why does the badger have such
a narrow dietary niche
breadth?
Results showed that…
Food items passed rapidly through
the gastrointestinal tract
– After 7 hours only one badger’s stomach still
had traces of food
– After 16 hours the colon only had traces of
selected food items
Combined with results from dietary
analysis…
Stomach and faecal samples suggest that
during periods of prey abundance badgers
gorge.
Therefore food passes rapidly through the
gut resulting in low assimilation efficiency
and food wastage.
Other mustelids also have low assimilation
efficiency
• Mink (Mustela vision) – Errington (1967)
• North American Badger (Taxidea taxus) – Harlow (1981)
• Weasel (Mustela nivalis) – Moors (1977)
• Wolverine (Gulo gulo) – Farrell and Wood (1968)
• Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) – Iversen (1972)
Why does the badger have such a narrow
dietary niche breadth?
Species with low absorption efficiency may
eat fewer food items = narrow niche
breadth
Species with high absorption efficiency eat
more prey types = broader niche breadth
Section 3
To Sum Up,
We tentatively suggest that…
Due to low assimilation efficiency
badgers have a narrow dietary niche
breadth composed of high-quality foods
Low ingested biomass of
earthworms compared to UK
This could be due to insect
larvae having a higher engery
content
Huge intake of vegetation may be
involved in slowing down passage
time through the gut?
Could this result in higher
assimilation efficiency?
Acknowledgements
• Mr. Bill Coleman
• Dept of Agriculture &
Food
• Dr. Ursula Fogarty
• Staff at IEC
• Staff at Abbotstown
farm
• Ms. Alison Boyce
• Mr. Peter Stafford
• Ms. Lynsey Stuart
Lynsey Stuart