Badgers are rare, elusive, and mostly nocturnal which makes understanding their ecology very challenging

In the last year, we started having more success finding and following badgers, but we still have much to learn!

Knowledge Gaps

Virtually nothing is known about badgers in Ontario. All we really know is that there are so few here that they are listed as endangered both provincially and nationally.  In fact, they are so uncommon that people living in the heart of badger country are often surprised to hear that they share their lands with this extraordinary species!

Badgers were listed as endangered almost a decade ago, and although there has been a lot of success in gaining public awareness, we are not much closer to knowing what they actually require in order to be successful in Ontario.  Until we answer some basic ecological questions, any effort at conservation will just be a shot in the dark.  

• How many badgers are there?
• Where are they foraging and hunting?
• What are they eating?
• What kinds of habitats do they prefer?
• What is the main cause of their death?

How are badgers Different in Ontario?

Most of what we know about badger ecology comes from studies conducted on badgers in British Columbia, the Prairie Provinces, and the western United States.  Badgers in these areas mostly occupy open range-lands and pastures, and predominantly consume colonial ground squirrels. 

Here in Ontario, the available habitat can be quite different. Instead of extensive prairies and range-land we have a patchwork of farms.  The closest thing we have to ground squirrels are groundhogs, which don't exist in the same concentrations as the colonial ground mammals out west.  So obviously the badgers here are doing something a bit differently. The question is whether they are able to make use of this type of habitat and prey sufficiently or whether our population just a remnant that is barely holding on?

Trying to conserve their populations based on how they live in different habitats isn't very likely to succeed, so understanding badger ecology here, and how it relates to the agricultural landscape that dominates this area is the obvious first step.

Badgers eat mostly gophers and ground squirrels out west, but what is their major prey here in Ontario?

Unlike the large stretches of open land out west, most of what is available to badgers in Ontario looks more like this (there was a burrow along the far edge)

Investigating possible badger burrows near London that were reported by these two young naturalists and their family

Researchers record data at a badger burrow and prepare a hair-snag for future hair collection

reports of Burrows

Badger burrows are easily the most important reports we receive. Unlike a sighting of a live badger, a burrow will still be there when we get to the area, and provides the best confirmation of badger presence. We can often collect badger hair for genetic samples when we investigate them, we can set hair-snags to collect hair if a badger returns, and the location of burrows helps inform us of badger habitat choice.

Despite the scarcity of badgers themselves, they may have many burrows over a large area, so people who spend a lot of time outside (like farmers, hunters, and hikers) have a decent chance of coming across one at some point. Though badger burrows tend to be fairly distinctive, many people are not familiar with them or even aware that badgers might be around at all! So it's possible that many more people have seen one and mistaken it for another animal's burrow. Learning to recognize badger burrows can be an enormous help to researchers, and can be very rewarding for yourself when you find your first one!

Mounted Badgers and road-kills

Using some very new research techniques, we can now use claw samples from mounted badgers and road-killed badgers to learn about the habitat those animals were living in while they were alive. This is an incredibly exciting technique because not only does it allow us to add many more badgers to our study, but since the claw samples are still good after several decades, we can compare those badgers to more recent ones, to see what has changed.

If you have a mounted badger, please consider donating a claw sample. We will have the claw repaired by a professional taxidermist and you will be able to make a very large contribution to badger research at no cost of your own!

Many mounted badgers in private homes date back several decades and can provide excellent information about how life for those badgers compared to today

If you see a road-killed badger, please call us as soon as possible so we can collect it before it gets scavenged!

While scenes like this in BC are rare, badgers and people do share much of the same habitat, and considering the needs of both is crucial

long term success through people

Public sightings are the best way to information us where badgers are for our research. But information and input from the public are also very important in other aspects of conservation.

Learning more about badge ecology is obviously the best place to start with conservation, but it isn't the whole picture.  It is people who are the most influential inhabitants of southern Ontario and we all have specific needs as well.  Unless we also take these into consideration, conservation will always be in conflict with what people need, and both badgers and people will suffer as a result.

It is only with the opinions and concerns of the people who live in badger country, that we will be able to discover the best and most effective way of keeping our badgers here in Ontario.

The nails of this "hair-snag" secure it into the top ceiling of a burrow, and the Velcro and carpet tack strip are what actually snags the hair

A hair-snag placed in the top of a burrow will collect a hair sample of any animal that enters or exits

Hairs that are collected are taken back to the lab and DNA is extracted from them for analysis

DNA from hair samples

DNA from hair is an incredible tool for researching elusive animals like badgers. Often, when we investigate a fairly recent burrow, we can find hair in or around the entrance with just a few minutes of searching. We can also set up "hair-snags" to collect hair samples of animals using the burrow while we are away. The amount of information we can get from hair, and the fact that it is non-invasive and very easy to collect is why reports of burrows are so important for our research, especially if we receive them promptly and can get out on site quickly.

Once hair is collected, the DNA is extracted and amplified in the lab. First we need to determine if the animal was a badger, then we can identify the individual badger that left the hair. That DNA signature is like a fingerprint that is unique to an individual.

The first two questions we will be able to address are (1) how related are our badgers to each other, and (2) how related are they to neighbouring populations in Michigan. This will tell us how much "gene flow" there is within and between populations. Not enough gene flow might imply that there are serious obstacles to the movement of badgers and that they are at risk of inbreeding. The more samples we collect, the more questions we can answer. With enough samples, it is possible to determine the population size, territory size, and even the distance and time of movements by badgers, all by recording when and where individual badger DNA was collected.

radio-tracking

One of the more traditional methods of studying animals, and one of the most fun for researchers in the field, is to live-trap an animal and release it with a radio-transmitter on it to get real-time information on the movement, behaviour and habitat choices of a species.

We trapped opportunistically through the summer of 2009 in locations with recent badger activity. We used "soft-catch" leg-hold traps placed at the entrance of a burrow. These are similar to what fur trappers use, but they have rubber padding so they don't cause any injuries to the animal. Badgers occur in such low densities relative to other animals, that trying to use bait to trap them would only result in trapping several hundred raccoons and skunks (a slight exaggeration). By focusing only on the entrance of burrows, we have a much greater chance of actually catching a badger. And by using a soft-catch leg hold trap instead of a cage trap we significantly reduce the risk of injuries to the badger. Surprisingly, despite the badger's reputation for protecting itself fiercely, they are remarkably docile in the leg-hold trap!

Traditional radio-tracking involves specially designed collars. However, badgers don't really have necks, and harnesses can be a great encumbrance to an animal that spends so much time going in and out of burrows. Following the experience of the researchers in BC, we used a radio-transmitting implant instead. These are about the size of a AA battery and are implanted by professional vets in a sterile environment. Once the procedure is finished, the badger can go about its business as normal.

After the badger is released, the real fun begins. The transmitter sends out a steady series of "beeps" that our hand-held antenna can pick up. Following the direction where these beeps are the loudest, we can now follow the badger as it goes back into its normal routine and discover much about the life of a badger that wouldn't have been possible before.

Researchers in BC setting up a soft-catch leg hold trap at the entrance of a burrow.

Ontario's first radio-transmitting badger, Lindsay, recuperates under the attentive care of the vets at Big Creek

A hand-held antenna is used to listen for the "beep" and determine the direction of the badger

With the help of the radio-transmitter we can find more burrows and get a greater understanding of badger behaviour

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Trace elements and chemicals vary across the landscape in unique ratios

These "signatures" are incorporated into the badger's body, and preserved in the claws of mounted animals

Next we measure the trace element and chemical signatures in the soil

Finally we match the signatures in the claws with signatures in the soils to determine where the badger was living

Back-tracking movement using claws

We are developing an entirely new technique of tracking animals through various habitats by matching the "chemical signatures" in their claws with those found in the soil.. 

As badgers move across the landscape looking for suitable prey, mates, and habitat, they consume different types and amounts of chemical elements (e.g., sodium, magnesium, calcium). These elements vary in distinct ratios, or "signatures", across the landscape depending on the underlying bedrock, soil type, vegetation cover, and land-use practice in a particular area. When these chemicals are consumed, they are incorporated into a badger’s claws, in proportions that reflect those of the local soils.  Since claws are grown over a period of several months, they store the chemical signatures of that entire period, becoming a sort of time-capsule of information about that badger's life. We have collected claw samples from recently road-killed badgers, museum specimens, and mounted badgers in private homes, some of which date to the 1950s. 

The next job is to take hundreds of soil samples from across southern Ontario and record the chemical signatures in various habitats. Now we can analyze the chemical signature in our claws samples and compare those to what we found for different habitats. The result is a series of locations that illustrate where a badger was living and feeding during the time its claw was being grown.

Click to see a diagram of how this technique works.

Because of how much we can learn with this method, reports of road-kills and claw samples from mounted badgers are extremely useful, even if the mount itself is several decades old. If you see a road-killed badger, please contact us as soon as possible so we can collect it, and consider donating a claw sample if you have a mounted badger (we will make sure it is professionally repaired free of cost).