Dwarf Badgers

Vulpes

Vulpes

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, im new here, thought id make my first post an interesting one! Ive been making my way through the forum reading different posts. after reading the post on dwarf manatee I thought you maybe interested to learn of a population of dwarf badgers living on an island off the west coast of Ireland! They are tiny and live in burrows that to look at you would think belonged to a rabbit! They are also active during the day! There is very little information available on them but I know a paper is about to be published very soon on the animals! Below is a pic the animals in the trap are two adult badgers!!

dwarfbadger.jpg
 
That sounds amazing. Is this island the only place on Earth to find them?
 
Im not sure when they were discovered, there are some other interesting badgers on the islands around Ireland like a white nosed group on an island off Sligo! I have some papers on the white nosed badgers but I am looking forward to learning more about the dwarf badgers. I dont think they are seperate species however. Yes as far as I know it is the only population in the world with approx 40 individuals!
 
Thanks,
if we recently discovered them, that means we have destroyed their habitiat unknowingly?
 
Vulpes said:
Im not sure when they were discovered, there are some other interesting badgers on the islands around Ireland like a white nosed group on an island off Sligo! I have some papers on the white nosed badgers but I am looking forward to learning more about the dwarf badgers. I dont think they are seperate species however. Yes as far as I know it is the only population in the world with approx 40 individuals!
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I did a search on this and you're right, there seems no information about them so far. I presume they have evolved their small size as an adaptation to a windswept and barren(?) environment. Perhaps diurnal habits have evolved as the result of no disturbance(if this island is not inhabited by people)

It would be interesting to know exact comparative size/weights of these 'dwarfs' and mainland Irish badgers.

Do the white nosed badgers have stripes on their faces - are they just reduced or what?
 
Sounds like insular dwarfism to me. And the white-nosed ones could be another example of the Founder effect.
 
I think the founder effect is when the founder of a population have a dominant trait that gets past on to all their descendants.
 
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@Pertinax: Depends on the animal and the habitat. A decrease/lack of natural predators, abundance of food and a free ecological niche can trigger a gradual increase in size, possibly resulting on the long run in a species larger than the original mainland form.
Examples: Giant wetas, the San Esteban Chuckwalla or the extinct Minorcan Giant Lagomorph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder_effect
 
I believe the island with the white nosed badgers is accessible from land during an extremly low tide. They actually know the date that the badgers crossed on to the island as someone observed them crossing the mud flats late one night in the 70's. there is one badger with a black nose but he may have crossed recently. I think they have the full stripes its their actual nose that is pink. I have some material on these that I havent got round to reading. Ill have a read through it then Ill be able to tell you more.

I will also post a copy of the article on the dwarf badgers as soon as it is published. I think the small size is due to a lack of food and the diurnal behaviour is due to their beach combing activities! I think they also eat rabbits! I am going to make a trip out to this island soon to observe them for myself. I will try and get some photographs.
 
On the topic of irish islands, I have heard a rumour that a population of dogs on an island off the west coast have interbred with the last wolves and still possess their genes! Anybody ever heard of this?
 
Vulpes said:
They actually know the date that the badgers crossed on to the island as someone observed them crossing the mud flats late one night in the 70's.

I will also post a copy of the article on the dwarf badgers as soon as it is published. I think the small size is due to a lack of food and the diurnal behaviour is due to their beach combing activities! I think they also eat rabbits! I am going to make a trip out to this island soon to observe them for myself. I will try and get some photographs.
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You've certainly started off with a very interesting topic here, albeit not a zoo one- maybe there will be a link one day.:)

Regarding knowing the exact date the 'white-nosed' colony established itself- do they know for sure they weren't present on the island before that date. They could easily cross regularly under cover of darkness.

Dwarf badgers- excellent if you can post the article in due course. Maybe the diurnal behaviour is caused by the rythm of the tides as they'd possibly need to forage at every low tide to find enough food, not just the ones which occur after dark. I wonder how they catch the rabbits- presumably in their burrows. Great if you can visit and get some photographs...
 
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Can I ask what the origin of the photo is? ie. Are you in it, taking the photo? While I don't doubt that badgers would be susceptible to progressive dwarfism on islands, to my mind they do look like young animals. Given that nobody else has admitted hearing of this, we seem to only have your word that they are actually adults or dwarfs.

As to the white-nosed individuals on another island, I have more belief that this may occur, as it is common for insular populations to develop odd mutations. There is a colony of hedgehogs on an island in the Channel Islands (Alderney, I think) that has a quarter of the population being pale-coloured.
 
Dr Paddy Sleeman of the department of zoology ecology and plant science at University Cork and an authority on Irish mammals first told me of the Dwarf and white nosed baders! I got the photograph from a recent talk that he put online about animal disease. the dwarf badgers are an example of a population of badgers that do not have TB so are invaluable in the study of this disease and the relatiopnship between badgers and cattle. the picture was taken from slide 35 on this powerpoint! However if you are still not convinced there is a paper being drawn up on the badgers and I will be sure and post it here when it is published! http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/lectures/LL_Paddy_Sleeman_jumping_germs.pdf
 
Vulpes said:
Dr Paddy Sleeman of the department of zoology ecology and plant science at University Cork and an authority on Irish mammals first told me of the Dwarf and white nosed baders! I got the photograph from a recent talk that he put online about animal disease. the dwarf badgers are an example of a population of badgers that do not have TB so are invaluable in the study of this disease and the relatiopnship between badgers and cattle. the picture was taken from slide 35 on this powerpoint! However if you are still not convinced there is a paper being drawn up on the badgers and I will be sure and post it here when it is published! http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/lectures/LL_Paddy_Sleeman_jumping_germs.pdf
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Thanks for the reply, sorry I am slow in responding. I realise you are the messenger and not proclaiming dwarf badgers to the scientific world, so you may not be able to answer all my questions.

I still have some doubts about dwarfism in badgers. Do you know how small this island is and whether there is any land access to the mainland (I presume Ireland) during low tide? If the badgers were consuming rabbits then a plentiful food supply is unlikely to see a drop in physical size. Mainland badgers feed mostly on earthworms. I also wonder how many generations have the badgers been on the island? This to me is a real flaw in the argument as badgers are relatively long-lived, when they don't get skittled by vehicles. Does anybody know whether there are badgers present on other islands around the British Isles - Anglesey, Brownsea, Isle of Man, Hebrides etc? I would have expected to see a similar situation on one of these islands if badgers were susceptible to insular dwarfism.
 
I can give you no more information, there is a paper being published and I will forward you a copy as soon as. Re: "is any land access to the mainland (I presume Ireland) during low tide?" no not as far as I know! The Islands off the west coast are very rocky (they have to be to survive the battering of the Atlantic) so I would presume the earthworm supply out there is minimal! hence the beach combing and the rabbit predation!
 
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