Hi Maurice,

We use peanuts to bait our live traps, and the badgers certainly love them.  I know of one woodmouse study, where Sherman traps were baited with peanuts and constantly raided by badgers until bowls filled with peanuts were specifically put out for the badgers. It seemed to keep them away from the Sherman traps.

What are the conflicting interests?

Hi Maurice

We did some badger trapping in a Mediterranean region of Portugal and we used peach jelly and canned Sardines in vegetable Oil, and badgers were attracted by them. But if badgers can find another easily accessible food elsewhere they will go for it (ex. any agriculture production such as corn or peanuts). Sometimes only fencing works, but depends on the agriculture patch size. 

Thanks for the answers so far. The conflict is between farmers complaining that their crops (maize?) is eaten because of too many badgers.... A classic conflict. The local authority is now asking advice and is willing to promote or deliver alternative food sources, but if think it is very unlikelt that it will help. I'm curious if there have been other projects somewhere in Europe which tried to distract badgers from specific areas by offering other (better) areas with more food on less problematic areas or fields. Anyway, sometimes it is better to do something, although it won't work, then doing nothing and having more and more problems with angry farmers in the long term.

hmm, providing alternative food may be tricky. We use fish oil to attract mice, but essentially it attracts badgers and other marten species, too. But it's not only distraction - badgers would sniff our (inaccessible) bait and carry on to find real food...I guess it's mostly a problem in the months july/august/september? What are other important food sources in this period? 

We have tried to tempt difficult-to-trap badgers into cages by placing maize in and around cages placed by sett entrances but they just bypassed these and went straight to the maize fields themselves. I am unaware of projects designed to distract badgers from crops specifically.  I agree that badger-proof fencing is very effective, it works in our study area to keep them off the motorway.  However, it may be a very expensive solution. 

Classical HWC indeed. Farming is is rarely compatible with increasing wildlife, more so when hunting is prohibited. Great you test a "carrot" approach before considering the "stick". In the end crops will need some type of (costly) fencing/barrier in the presence of crop raiding wildlife.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261219401001235 - excluding badgers from crops using electric fencing

Not convinced that provisioning wild badgers with an alternative food source is a strategy that should be promoted - not only is it not sustainable in the long-term, it will also result in behavioural modifications that can be transferred between social groups and generations that could have long-term impacts.  I think fencing is a better solution. And if the local authorities are willing to pay for the time- and money-consuming process of supplementary feeding, surely they can help farmers with better fencing which is more time- and cost-effective?

Dear Maurice,

never get the animals used to food provided by humans, that's a rule: in the long run, they would cause even more problems. As suggested by most colleagues, definitely go for exclusion devices such as fences preventing badgers' access to sensitive sites. 

Best

Danilo

I would say...what do you want them distracted from?? is it crops, chickens or what? You could provide alternative food sources outside the conflict area indeed, but if its not as energy cost/effective as the conflict one, I would guess it will be hard. Then again a combination between providing alternative food sources (berry bushes, other fruit bearing trees, etc..) and exclusion from the conflict area... fencing perharps, dogs for guarding... I dont know... reducing coverage, etc... might prove more useful.

Dear colleagues,

Thanks for all answers and links to interesting articles. It is clear that fencing (with eletric wires) it the best solution.

Thank you very much,

Maurice

Hi Maurice,

I’ve worked with problematic fauna for many years in Umbria (central Italy). My office was interested about coypu and crested porcupine. Indirectly, when found in sintopy, about badger and fox too. We helped farm products (tobacco) from porcupines and coypus attacks with electric fence in the first, then with aromatic barriers (commercial not dangerous repellent)  and food barriers (maize and sunflowers plantations).We helped river banks from porcupines holes with live traps and transfer techniques (in some case, we had trapped coypus, foxes or badgers living in the same bank. To capture foxes and badgers we used live traps with tuna fish).

If you want, you can find more information about this in our works on RG.

Best wishes.

Andrea

Dear Andrea,

Thanks for the information. I will take a look.

Maurice