Since 1975, the Central Science Laboratory (CSL) has been monitoring a wild badger population in 11km2 of mixed woodland and farmland in Gloucestershire.
The National Trust's Woodchester Park property makes up a substantial part of this area. The resident badger population comprises of approximately 36 distinct social groups and is the subject of a long-term ecological and epidemiological study.
Badgers are routinely trapped throughout the year in cages baited with peanuts, then examined and subsequently released unharmed. Other methods employed to monitor the population include direct observation, radio-tracking and bait-marking.
Research and achievements
The study at Woodchester Park is one of the longest running and most detailed ecological studies of a mammal population in Britain.
The original purpose of the study was to provide information on the potential role of the badger in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (TB) to cattle.
However, since it began, the study has also made a substantial contribution to our current state of knowledge regarding badger ecology and behaviour. The population has been the subject of scientific publications on TB in badgers, population dynamics, behaviour, reproductive biology, social organisation and study techniques.
In addition, the fieldwork and sampling regime has provided data and biological materials for collaborative research projects on wildlife management, genetics, behaviour, endocrinology and parasitology with universities, government agencies and research institutes in the UK and abroad.
The Woodchester Park database contains more than 9600 records from more than 2000 individual animals collected over the course of 23 years. This constitutes a unique source of information on the life histories of individual badgers and the changing fortunes of the population.
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