The use of marked bait in studies of the territorial organization of the European Badger (Meles meles)

Bait-marking is a widely used technique for determining the territorial con figuration of social groups of the European Badger (Meles meles). Applicati ons include ecological research and applied wildlife management problems. B ait laced with indigestible plastic pellets is fed to Badger social groups, and the markers are identified in subsequent defecations. Feeding a unique colour and/or shape of pellet to each social group allows the origin of dr oppings to be assigned. This method is particularly suited to Badgers becau se they mark their territorial boundaries with communal latrines. In this p aper the technique is described in detail for the first time in the scienti fic literature. Data from sequential visits to latrines during the survey p eriod showed significant short-term variation in the number of marked dropp ings counted at individual latrines. This suggests that counting marked dro ppings may be of limited value in quantifying defecation rates and latrine use. However, counts of droppings at latrines could be useful if repeated o ver time and/or grouped into broad categories. Bait marking does provide re liable data for the estimation of territorial boundaries between Badger gro ups, although it is labour intensive and time-consuming, with the best resu lts obtained by experienced fieldworkers.