Ecology and Translocation‐Aided Recovery of an Endangered Badger Population
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Southern British Columbia, Canada, is the northwestern range limit of the American badger ( Taxidea taxus ) and supports a nationally endangered subspecies. We initially investigated space‐use, diet, and demography in southeastern British Columbia to characterize range‐limit ecology. Resident badgers in the northern part (NP) of our study area were extirpated or nearly so during our study (λ = 0.7), whereas the southern (SP) badger population remained viable (λ = 1.2). This apparent difference in viability between NP and SP may have been confounded by timing because research occurred later in SP; litter size, number of Columbian ground squirrels ( Spermophilus columbianus ) consumed, and home range size were each correlated nearly equally to latitude and date of research, and survivorship was greater later in the study for both the NP and SP. Collectively, these factors indicated temporal, not just spatial, variability. Therefore, we translocated badgers into the NP to 1) determine whether the NP had lost its capacity to support badgers or had merely experienced the variability expected at a range limit and, if the latter, 2) initiate recovery. Translocated animals and their offspring had kit production equivalent to that of SP residents, adult survivorship intermediate between the NP and SP residents, and no confirmed kit mortality, with population growth projected (λ = 1.3). Diet of translocated individuals was similar to that of residents. Home ranges of translocated females were intermediate between the 2 resident groups, and home ranges of translocated males were not different than either resident group. Juvenile dispersal dates and distances were similar to those of residents for each sex. Our results were consistent with the extirpation of the NP being driven by temporally variable conditions or the effect of random events expected at range limits. The extirpation of NP did not appear to have been primarily due to any permanent loss of the NP's capacity to support badgers. At 3.5 years after starting translocations, badgers remained in the NP within an apparently growing population. We found translocation to be a useful diagnostic and conservation tool for badgers at their northern limit. Its utility may extend to countering the fluctuations typical of other rare, range‐limit species.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".