The threats facing wildlife today are manifest and, regrettably, often all too tangible, making it frustrating if evident solutions are not delivered. Beneath these imperative issues, however, lie more subtle factors, where the success of a species may hinge on how individuals respond to changing habitat conditions or disease exposure, and how this ramifies through its society.
To these ends the WildCRU’s Badger Project has proven invaluable in collecting a wealth of fundamental ecological data for over 30 years. The unprecedented detail of our records now enable us to formulate a truly comprehensive understanding of badger socio-ecology, where the generalist badger provides a model species applicable to a wealth of ecological paradigms – a sentinel for how species may respond to the challenges they face.
Dr. Chris Newman and Dr. Christina Buesching run the Badger Project on behalf of Prof. David Macdonald, having joined the project as grad students themselves back in 1991 and 1996, respectively. Chris specialises in population ecology and climate change, Christina in animal behaviour and olfactory communication.
