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Author:   David Macdonald (Director, Director, Wildlife and Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK) ,  Chris Newman (Research Associate, Research Associate, Wildlife and Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 19.00cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 24.50cm
Weight:   1.259kg
ISBN:  

9780198893592

ISBN 10:   0198893590
Pages:   592
Publication Date:   05 September 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Lord John Krebs of Wytham: Foreword Preface 1: Setting the Scene: Births and Beginnings 2: It's Tough at the Bottom 3: Apprenticeships for Badger Society 4: Setts, Society and Super-groups: The Geology of Social Behaviour 5: The Sum of the Parts: Knowing One's Place in Badger Society 6: Social Odours: The Perfume of Society 7: Sex: How and Why, and with Whom? 8: Social Behaviour in an Uncooperative Society 9: Who Goes There: Friend or Foe? 10: The Ecological Foundations to Badger Group-Living 11: The Economics of Survival: Population Size, and Crashing through the Ceiling 12: Weather: Actuarial Insights 13: Weather: Badgers Adapt or Die 14: The Game of Life 15: In Sickness and in Health 16: The Story of Badgers and TB: Perturbation and Beyond 17: Genetic Mate Choice: Quality Matters 18: Senescence, Telomeres, and Life-History Trade-Offs 19: Of the Same Stripe, or Not: Exceptions that Prove Rules

Reviews

The 19 chapters comprehensively address behavior, population ecology, and the effects of disease and weather on the European badger, and make appropriate comparisons with the other five genera of the world's badger species. During the study, life history data was recorded on over 1,800 individuals. Given the size of the study population and time depth of the study itself, there should be no surprise that such an enormous amount of information is presented in one volume. * Choice * This book is the product of 50 years of David's and 30 years of Chris's study of badgers in an Oxfordshire wood. You can find anything you want to know about badgers in this book, and it is written in a way that wealth of detail is not intimidating. * Keith Somerville, The Shepherd *

Author Information

Professor David Macdonald CBE has been Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University since founding it in 1986, and is also Senior Research Fellow in Wildlife Conservation at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He began research in Wytham Woods in 1972, and has been studying badgers since then. In 1986 he began the routine annual sampling of badgers which is the foundation of this book. A recent survey by BBC Wildlife magazine listed him amongst the ten most influential living conservationists, and he has twice been awarded the Natural History Author of the Year. Chris Newman joined the Wildlife Conservation Unit at Oxford University in 1991, spending 15 years living on-site in the heart of Wytham Woods which gave him unprecedented access to the 300 badgers that shared his garden. In 2019 he moved to Novia Scotia to work as an independent ecological consultant.

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