Studies On Activity Patterns And Behavers Of Introduced Badgers, Meles Meles

Badger(Meles meles), belongs to Carnivores, Mustelidae, Melinae, and as the only species of Meles. It is a kind of small and medium-sized burrowing animals. Badger is widely distributed in Eurasia, and throughout China except Taiwan and Hainan provinces(GaoYaoting et al,1987). However, due to the enhancement of human activities and the destruction of the natural environment, the habitat space of badger has been narrowing and the wild population reducing in recent years. In our country, badger has been included in "terrestrial wild animal list of beneficial or of important economic, scientific value under national protection".Badger is the largest wild mammal in Shanghai region. As it plays an important role in the maintenance of the biodiversity of the city, badger is very valuable natural resources. However, with the city’s rapid economic development, badger’s survival habitat gradually reduces, and the number of badger has been below the threshold maintaining the population to survive healthly in a long term. And so, badger may completely disappear in the Shanghai area unless effective measures are taken.Badger population ecological restoration project was started in Shanghai for the protection of this endangered species. In addition to taking measures to protect the original habitat of badger, the progect also introduced individuals from other places to recover the number of badger population. Whether introduced badgers can establish population and survive in a long term, lies in whether they can adapt to the local environment and normally reproduce. Therefore, we carried out this study on the activity patterns and behavior of introduced badgers in Shenya ecological parkin order to assess their adaptability to the local environmentand provide some basic information for the badger population ecological restoration project. 1. The activity laws of the badgers introduced from Shandong were observed by infrared video camera from March2011to March2012. The results showed that, the activity time out of setts of introduced badgers was about2.5h longer on average than that of the local badgers in four seasons, and the longest duration,9.85h, was happened in summer; the yong baby emerged from setts35minutes later on average than adults and had an average of40minutes shorter activity time in spring and summer when they were taken cared by mother; the time of activity between males and females had no significant differences.2. Artificial feeding was important source of food for the introduced badgers. During the study, the feeding in the feeding spot for adult badger was observed. The results showed that, there were significant differences for introduced badgers feeding artificial diet in different seasons. Average daily feeding time in autumn,2.93h, was the longest and its share in time of activity out of setts,34.8%, was the biggest.The feeding time distribution was dispersive in spring and summer while concentrated between16:00and20:00in autumn and between0:00and4.00in winter,and the ratio in whole feeding time were61%and62%.3. Nursery behavior can ensure the smooth development of pups. The relationship between two young badgers just out of the hole and their mother was studied in May2011. The results showed that, the frequency of nursery behaviors such as smelling cub, licking cub, holding cub and playing with cub, were higher, shortly after the young badgers started to ermerge outside the hole. But on the whole, motherhood had weakened gradually. Lactating was only observed in the beginning of May, it seemed that the young badger had already weaned shortly after starting to ermerge outside the hole. 4. Based on the observation and in-depth understanding of the activity patterns and behavior of introduced badgers during the study period, we put forward some suggestions for the badger population ecological restoration in Shanghai area:the original badger habitat should be restored and rebuilt scientificly before the introduction; the introduced badger should be in a controlled environment for adaptive artificial stocking initially, to help them better adapt to the environment; the artificial feeding should be appropriate and in accordance with their feeding characteristics.