Elsevier

Journal of Thermal Biology

Volume 74, May 2018, Pages 226-233
Journal of Thermal Biology

Badger setts provide thermal refugia, buffering changeable surface weather conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2018.04.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We monitored microclimate in 11 European badger setts (dens) with a thermal probe.

  • Badger sett temperature was more stable than exterior conditions.

  • Soil type, aspect, and the presence of badgers all affected sett temperature.

  • Heavier cubs developed in warmer setts in the following spring.

  • Den use may buffer climate change effects for many fossorial carnivore species.

Abstract

Den use can be crucial in buffering environmental conditions and especially to provide an insulated environment for raising altricial young. Through Sept-Dec 2016 we monitored temperature and humidity at 11 badger setts (burrow systems), using thermal probes inserted over 4–13 sett entrances to a depth of ca. 2 m, supplemented by continuous daily logging at one entrance per sett. Setts were cooler than exterior conditions Sept-Oct, and warmer than exterior conditions Nov-Dec. Setts cooled down when badgers left them to forage by night, and warmed up when badgers occupied them by day. Soil type and aspect also influenced sett temperature. Sett temperature did not affect the weight or body-condition of either adults or maturing cubs in autumn. However, cubs born into setts that were relatively warmer through the preceding autumn-winter were heavier in the following spring than contemporaries born in cooler setts (badgers exhibit delayed implantation), and so warmer setts might benefit early cub growth. We posit that sett quality may be important in providing badgers with a stable thermal refuge from variable weather conditions. More broadly, den use may buffer climate change effects for many fossorial carnivore species.

Introduction

Mammals can occupy a range of bioclimatic zones due to homeothermy; however, regulating core temperature to stay within a narrow range (Crompton et al., 1978) requires potentially costly energy expenditure, particularly in cold or variable environments (Boyles et al., 2011, Lowell and Spiegelman, 2000). These costs can be especially high for neonatal and developing juvenile mammals that are less able to regulate core temperature, often have sparse fur, and are more prone to heat loss than adults due to scale laws in relation to their small body size (McNab, 1988; see Noonan et al., 2015b).

As a consequence, mammals supplement physiological thermoregulatory mechanisms with behavioural strategies (Terrien et al., 2011). One key strategy employed by many rodents and carnivores for mitigating inclement weather is the use of subterranean refugia, especially while nursing young (Noonan et al., 2015b). Underground dens and burrows tend to have stable (or more stable) microclimates, which buffer changes in surface conditions (Boutros et al., 2007, Johnson and Pelton, 1980, Magoun and Copeland, 1998). Furthermore, dens offer complete protection against rain and snow (Blix and Lentfer, 1979), and even forest fire (Thompson and Purcell, 2016). Nevertheless, fossorial animals must leave their dens to forage, and engage in other activities, resulting in a trade-off between the proportions of time individuals can spend underground versus other essential activities (Noonan et al., 2014). The insulating quality of burrows and the ability of species to reduce activity during inclement above-ground conditions (e.g. torpor, hibernation; Humphries et al., 2002) can thus be critically important. This may be especially important during cold winter, or unusually aberrant conditions (Smith et al., 2009, Smith, 2011), when food availability may be low, but foraging incurs substantial heat loss.

Since the mid- 20th century, anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations have contributed substantially to increasing global average temperatures and extreme weather events (IPCC, 2014a). This rapid climate warming can affect animal ecology in two ways; either indirectly, through impacts on food resources, reducing available energy inputs (Tuomainen and Candolin, 2010), or directly, by costing the animal more energy to thermoregulate (Beever et al., 2017, Huey and Tewksbury, 2009, Sih, 2013). A decline in population survival rate will, however, only become apparent once conditions exceed the thermal tolerance range of the species examined (Scheffers et al., 2014, Silva et al., 2017) and their ability to adapt their daily and seasonal routines (see Newman et al., 2017). It is therefore important to better understand how animals actually respond and adapt to the range of weather conditions they experience in order to project how they may cope with changed climatic conditions in the future (Beever et al., 2017, Scheffers et al., 2014, Noonan et al., 2015a).

Here we establish the conditions in fossorial dens (termed ‘setts’) used by the European badger (Meles meles; henceforth ‘badger’) in relation to prevailing weather. In the UK, badgers live mainly in agricultural mosaic habitats, locating setts in wooded areas (Macdonald et al., 2015). They are nocturnal, resting underground for on average 12.3 ± 1.69 SD hours per diem (same study population; Noonan et al., 2015c). Badgers are widely distributed across Europe, and have been established to achieve their highest densities where earthworms provide a major proportion of their diet, such as in Britain (Johnson et al., 2002); with congeneric Meles spp. across Asia (Zhou et al., 2017). Because microclimate affects the availability of earthworms (Jiménez and Decaëns, 2000), badger population dynamics are governed strongly by weather conditions (see Macdonald et al., 2010; Macdonald and Newman, 2002; Newman et al., 2017; Nouvellet et al., 2013).

At high density, badgers form social groups (Macdonald et al., 2015) with each group sharing a sett (Noonan et al., 2014, Roper, 1992). Over winter, when food resources are in short supply, badgers can conserve energy by staying within their setts (Noonan et al., 2014, Noonan et al., 2015a) and use periods of light torpor to conserve metabolic expenditure (Fowler and Racey, 1988; see also Newman et al., 2011)-strategies used predominantly by fatter badgers that are less desperate to feed (Noonan et al., 2014). Notably, in Scotland (Silva et al., 2017) and Ireland (Byrne et al., 2015) badgers prefer warmer sites.

We focused here on the autumn period leading into winter, when variation in weather can have a significant effect on badger survival (Macdonald et al., 2010). Note: after delayed implantation, badger gestation commences around late-December / early January, and maternal condition is known to affect embryonic development, litter size and neonatal mortality rate (Woodroffe, 1995, Macdonald and Newman, 2002). Specifically we tested whether:

  • i)

    microclimatic conditions within setts differed from prevailing above-ground weather conditions, and investigated how stable temperatures were within setts.

  • ii)

    the soil type in which the sett was dug, or its aspect were associated with the sett's thermal properties.

  • iii)

    sett temperature changed through the 24 h cycle in relation to badger occupancy

  • iv)

    autumn-winter sett temperature influenced the contemporaneous body-condition and weight of sett residents (cubs/adults), and the weight and body-condition achieved among natal cubs and resident adults in the subsequent spring.

We conclude by evaluating how our findings on subterranean refugia conditions and usage may enhance the ability of fossorial species to cope with more extreme weather conditions, as predicted by climate change scenario IPCC AR5 (IPCC, 2014a).

Section snippets

Study site

Wytham Woods, located 5 km north-west of the City of Oxford, comprise 424 ha of semi-natural woodland with areas of open grassland (for details see: Savill et al., 2010). Taylor et al. (2010) give mean annual temperature as 10 °C (1993–2007) with mean annual rainfall of 717 mm, recorded at the top of Wytham Hill at an elevation of 160 m by the Environmental Change Network. Due to unique ecological circumstances, Wytham Woods have the highest published density of badgers in the world, at > 40/km2

Sett temperature and humidity compared to exterior conditions

Weekly spot measures of interior sett temperature (n = 924; taken by day, when badgers were in residence) averaged 10.64 ± 2.53 °C (range: 3.90–16.60 °C, median = 10.8 °C) over the study period, versus a contemporaneous exterior sett temperature average of 10.78 ± 4.06 °C (range: 2.60–24.00 °C, median = 10.3 °C). From OLS tests, interior sett temperature followed the same patterns of increase and decrease as exterior sett temperature (t = 17.97, p < 0.0001), with a negative effect of date

Discussion

With regard to our first study aim, from logging daily sett interior temperature in a single entrance, we found that setts were generally warmer than exterior conditions. However, from weekly spot measurements over multiple entrances, we found that daytime (afternoon) sett temperatures (i.e., while badger were present and benefitted from the sett's thermal properties) were in actuality cooler than exterior conditions in the autumn (Sept-Oct), and warmer than exterior conditions once ambient air

Conclusion

Maintaining homeothermic regulation is crucial for mammals, but incurs considerable energetic costs (Weiner, 1989). For animals exposed to prevailing weather conditions, the more extreme the environmental temperature (and other contributors such as soaking by rain; Webb and King, 1984) departs from the normative range to which that species is adapted, the more energy an animal has to commit to maintaining its constant body temperature (Terrien et al., 2011). Consequently, den use can be crucial

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the badger trapping team, past and present. We thank Ms. Nadine Adrianna Sugianto, a DPhil student atWildCRU, for supporting the surveys, and Prof. Andrew Markham, of Oxford University's Department of Computer Science, for loaning us data loggers We also thank Dr. Masayuki U. Saito, of Yamagata University's Faculty of Agriculture, for statistical advice in R. We thank the National Meteorological Library and Archive - Met Office, UK for the provision of meteorological data.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP26257404).

Animal ethics statement

All work was evaluated by the University Oxford Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board. Interventions at badger setts were performed under UK government Natural England licence numbers 2016–18558-SCI-SCI and 2017–27589-SCI-SCI. All animal trapping and handling procedures were performed under UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 licence PPL

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