Individual differences in den maintenance effort in a communally dwelling mammal: the Eurasian badger

Group living has potential costs in terms of relative fitness for individua ls that invest effort in activities providing general benefit, if other com peting individuals exploit those activities and accrue similar benefits at no cost. We examined the roles of individual badgers, Meles meles, in the d en maintenance activities of digging and bedding collection at their commun al setts. Twenty per cent of adults and yearlings were responsible for 60-9 0% of the observed digging and bedding collection effort. Overall males ten ded to dig more than females, while durations of bedding collection were si milar. Among adult and yearling males and females, individuals with a high percentage of days observed at the set (high site fidelity) performed more digging and collected more bedding than transients and badgers of low site fidelity. Males of high status (large, mature, frequently copulating indivi duals) were more likely to dig than males of low status. Principal componen t analysis indicated negligibly low correlation between status and site fid elity for males. We hypothesize that while highly resident adult females be nefit from extending the sett to avoid direct reproductive competition, mal es of high status and site fidelity might extend the sett to encourage rece ptive breeding females in their home group to stay and/or to improve surviv orship of sired litters. Other categories of individual depend on the sett for shelter but, perhaps having less to gain from extending it, adopt a les s active role in sett maintenance. (C) 1999 The Association for the Study o f Animal Behaviour.